


Alterations

by ambiguous_nights



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Violence, But he's evil, Everyone's evil, Multi, Physical Abuse, Qui-Gon Jinn Lives, Rated For Violence, but no non-con in the story, mentions of rape/non-con
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2020-12-16 16:41:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 20
Words: 29,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21039398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguous_nights/pseuds/ambiguous_nights
Summary: Obi-wan drops from one dimension to the next. Unfortunately for him, this is the dimension were the Jedi have fallen to the dark side and the Empire rules over everything.





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> warnings for torture/captivity/injury/brainwashing/lots of bad stuff

Qui-gon trudges through the pouring rain, his every step splashing mud and water across the ground. He keeps his soaking hood pulled up even though it seems only to collect water. He edges around a street corner, keeping an eye out for stormtroopers. There haven’t been any here in weeks, but caution has served him well these past few years.

A soft groan comes from the alley beside him. He should keep moving. He really should, but the Force is whispering to him for the first time in a long time. Qui-gon steps into the alley and finds a young man lying in the mud. The man is soaking wet. Mud covers what might once have been a tan tunic. Altogether, the sight of an unconscious drunk is not unexpected. But the lightsaber lying beside him tells a very different story.

He kneels down and rolls the man onto his back. He’s definitely wearing Jedi robes, a very dangerous thing to do these days. Qui-gon pulls off his own robe and wraps it around the younger man before picking him up and throwing him over his shoulder. He grabs the lightsaber, noting the utilitarian design. He shoves it deep inside his pocket. This man is here for a reason. Qui-gon intends to find out what it is.

He makes his way through the rain and to his small hut on the edge of town, keeping off the main streets. The door to his home slides open and he ducks inside.

The hut appears to be made of a few small rooms with just enough supplies to get by, which is exactly what he wants any passersby to think. He shoves a rug aside and opens the thick metal hatch to the basement. He drops the man on the floor near the wall and locks chains around each of his wrists and attaches the other ends to the wall with just enough slack to let the man’s hands fall into his lap.

For now, he lets the supposed Jedi remain slumped against the wall. It’s not the worst position he could think of, but he doesn’t want to injure them too quickly. Not until he finds out who they are. And if they know about him. He isn’t ready for the Empire to find him. Not yet.

He checks the binders again before searching through the man’s pockets and belt. A commlink. A few ration-packs. Some bacta patches. A grappling hook. Standard Jedi equipment. But no one can get bacta these days. Not unless you work for the Empire.

He finds a few lock picks and knife slid carefully into the inside of a boot. He removes the man’s boots and tunics and shirts, checking those for tools and extra equipment. He tosses those and the rest of the equipment into a box at the other side of the room. His eyes wander back to his captive. The man does have a few lightsaber scars, though there’s a particularly nasty one on his arm. There’s a number of blaster scars too, some of the wounds not even fully healed yet.

Qui-gon steps away and climbs the ladder back to the main floor of his hut. He changes out of his civilian clothes and into darker ones and pulls a helmet of his head. He takes a packet of syringes out of the cooling unit. Returning to the basement, he injects the man with the Force suppressor. It’s a small dose, just enough to last a few hours. He needs to conserve it as much as he can. Such chemicals are even more difficult to find than bacta.

He grabs a hose and sprays the men with a blast of cold water. The man awakens almost immediately and attempts to get to his feet. The chains are locked just low enough in the wall that standing upright is impossible. The man slumps back down before making a more careful test of the chains holding his wrists. He touches his neck, feeling the injection mark and the red ring around it. He shakes water out of his coppery hair.

Qui-gon steps out of the shadows, his heavy boots clanging against the metal of the floor. The man raises his head, blue-grey eyes staring back at him. He’s surprisingly familiar.

“What are you doing here?” Qui-gon asks, his voice distorted by a modulator in the helmet.

The man glances at the metal walls and the trap door. “I am uncertain. I assume you’re the one who brought me here,” he says.

“What are you doing on this planet?”

“And what planet would that be? I’m sorry, I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage.” The man smiles at him, infuriatingly polite. Qui-gon can’t quite contain the rage the drives him forward to hit the man and wipe that smug grin from his face. It’s a mistake.

The man attacks once Qui-gon is close enough, using his legs and the limited reach of his arms to slam Qui-gon’s head into the floor. He reaches into Qui-gon’s pockets, searching for the release key to the binders.

In the ensuing struggle, Qui-gon’s helmet is knocked away. The man chained to the wall freezes.

“Qui-gon?” he says quietly. Qui-gon rolls out of the man’s slackening grip and across the room. He gets back to his feet. The man is staring at him, confusion and shock bleeding into the Force around him. Qui-gon grabs a shock prod out off the wall and stalks across the room. The man’s confusion turns to fear as he tries to get away. “Wait! Qui-gon!” The prod hits the side of his head, knocking him unconscious. He crumples back to the ground with a dull thud.

Qui-gon backs away, letting the prod slip from his fingers. The Force screams at him, a wordless cry in the darkness as a bond long dormant flairs to life in his head. This isn’t his former padawan. It can’t be. No matter what the Force is screaming at him, this isn’t him. It isn’t.

He nearly trips over himself trying to get out of the basement, suddenly unable to breathe through the emotions welling up in his chest. Obi-wan is dead. This can’t be him.

Something itches at the back of Anakin’s mind. He dismisses the delegates he had been speaking to and retreats back to his ship. He slips into his quarters and locks the doors. He removes his dark helmet, revealing golden eyes and tousled hair. A long scar sits just above and below his right eye. He removes pieces of his armor, allowing himself to change into comfortable black robes.

Settling down, Anakin, or Vader as he is known to the vast majority of his Empire, falls into meditation, attempting to examine the strange itch. There’s some kind of bond. He touches it, wondering at the golden strand reaching across space. The person on the other end is muted. He reaches across the bond again, trying to get a sense of who it is. Bonds rarely form spontaneously, and they certainly couldn’t have grown this strong without him noticing it. His reach grazes against an unconscious mind. The mind is familiar, but he can’t quite place it. He pushes forward again. The light of such a mind is blindingly beautiful. They must be a Jedi. One of the last.

The mind stirs when it senses his presence. It seems to smile at him, allowing him closer and wrapping him in the warmth of such a light, trusting him. Anakin stares at the light, confused by the welcome. Finally, a name comes to him. An impossible name. A name belonging to a Jedi that died just as everything began to fall apart. “Obi-wan?”

The mind curls around him, trying to offer comfort to the confused emotions raging inside him. Anakin pulls away. Obi-wan never knew what happened. He was dead before he found out. And yet, he’s alive. Alive and reaching out to him.

Obi-wan’s aura suddenly darkens with fear. He turns his attentions outward and gently pushes Anakin away and pulls the fear behind shields. Anakin stares at the shields, far stronger and more complicated than Obi-wan’s had ever been.

But two things are certain. Obi-wan is back, alive, somehow. And he’s in danger.


	2. Twisting

Qui-gon climbs back down into his basement to find the man leaning heavily against the wall, but awake. The suppressor has worn off. The brilliant Force signature disappears behind shields the moment Qui-gon appears. “Master?” the man hesitantly asks. Obi-wan Kenobi. His former padawan. His dead padawan. Older than he was at death, with shorter hair and thicker beard.

An Imperial trick. Obviously here to kill him.

And yet, the Force practically screams against such an accusation. “Lower you shields. Let me see you,” Qui-gon says. 

The man hesitantly lowers his shields a fraction of the way. It’s enough. Enough to recognize him.

“Obi-wan?” The man nods. Qui-gon kneels in front of him, gently pressing his palm to Obi-wan’s cheek. Obi-wan leans into the touch, a slight smile on his face. “How are you alive?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Obi-wan says. “You died on Naboo over ten years ago.”

“And you were killed three years ago, just at the start of the Clone Wars.” 

The Force says they’re both telling the truth. And yet they can’t be. “This doesn’t make any sense. How did you get here?”

“I was in battle on Felucia. And then I woke up in your basement.”

“I found you in alley. And this isn’t Felucia.”

“Clearly,” Obi-wan says, submitting to Qui-gon’s continued examination of his face. Qui-gon tilts Obi-wan’s head to the side and seeing the same freckles and moles that marked his padawan.

“You are Obi-wan Kenobi. You died. And yet, here you are, from a different life, where I died. The will of the Force?”

“So, it would seem.”

“Now that we’ve established that, can you let me out?” Obi-wan shakes the binders pointedly.

“Not yet.”

“Why not?”

“Did Anakin become your padawan? Or someone else’s after my death on Naboo?”

“My padawan.”

“Do you still have a bond?”

“We do. I thought I sensed him briefly, but it was from a great distance. It must have been to my Anakin, not this timeline or universe. I don’t think bonds can just transfer.”

“I wouldn’t be so certain,” Qui-gon says, reaching along the torn remains of his bond with his old padawan. Obi-wan startles slightly but reaches back along the line of his own tattered bond. Both bonds are healing, somehow connecting despite the differences between their lives.

“This shouldn’t be possible.”

“Anything is possible with the Force.”

“You sound just like yourself,” Obi-wan says. “Where are we? This certainly isn’t the Jedi Temple.”

“There has been a… schism, of sorts.”

“A what?”

“A schism. Of the Jedi Order. Has this not occurred in your timeline?”

Obi-wan shakes his head. 

“Here, it has. Simply stated, the Order broke into two factions, one led by myself, the other by a man called Vader, after Yoda’s death.”

“Yoda’s what?” Obi-wan says, alarmed.

“He died killing Darth Sidious. Did that not happen?”

Obi-wan shakes his head. “Who was he?”

“Chancellor Palpatine.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t interrupt. Anyway, that happened only a year into the Clone Wars, which we learned was sham, perpetuated by Sidious with the help of my old master. Things got complicated quickly. I tried desperately to keep the Order together, but I couldn’t save them. Hundreds of the Jedi fell to the Darkside under Vader’s influence. Dooku turned away from the Darkness. He helped those of us that survived to escape Vader and his new Empire. We’re hiding now, waiting until we can be free again.”

Qui-gon stepped closer, allowing himself to take a breath before continuing. “You died before the schism on Geonosis. You had been investigating a bounty hunter, the template for the clones. You were executed for espionage. I heard you put up a good fight though. We would have gone to your aid, but the Senate forbade it. They were terrified of starting the war. They let you die in a sandy arena to be eaten alive by beasts and vultures. I suppose that was the catalyst for me. Dooku had already left. I just followed. I just wanted to start over.”

“And what of Anakin? Is he okay? You asked about our bond.”

“He’s the leader of the Empire, alongside Emperor Amidala. He is Vader. He’s a Sith,” Qui-gon says.

“No,” Obi-wan said. “That’s not possible.”

Qui-gon holds out a holodisk and plays the video, which showed Anakin, eyes golden, cutting down Jedi. “Its not true,” Obi-wan says, head bowed and shaking slightly.

“Search your feelings, padawan. Its true.”

“But not the whole truth,” Obi-wan says, looking up with startlingly clear eyes. “And you aren’t as a good as a liar as you think you are.”

Obi-wan sends a powerful Force push his way, shattering the Force illusion Qui-gon had maintained around himself as he slams into the wall. His eyes glow gold as he draws his saber. It glows red, casting eerie shadows in the basement. “What tipped you off?” Qui-gon asks.

“Your kyber crystal. I can hear it screaming,” Obi-wan says as his own saber flies into his hand from across the room. “Your illusion wasn’t strong enough to hide it.” He cuts quickly through the chains before diverting his saber to deflect the Sith lightning that Qui-gon throws at him.

Qui-gon rushes at him and the sabers collide with a hiss and sparks. In the close quarters, Qui-gon’s Ataru is limited, giving Obi-wan the advantage. He knows Qui-gon’s fighting style. Qui-gon doesn’t know his. Apparently, he hadn’t changed to Soresu without Qui-gon’s death as a catalyst.

The blades scorch the ceiling and walls as they duel. Qui-gon leaps from the basement. Obi-wan has no choice but to follow if he wants to escape. Qui-gon’s intentional retreat towards more open space pushes them out into the rain in the mud.

Without his boots or tunic, Obi-wan shivers slightly as the rain spatters on his bare skin and the mud slips between his toes. Both of them, masters by their own right and at their own form, find no advantage over the other. But Obi-wan is younger and his own style does not require the energy draining leaps and flips of Qui-gon’s. Eventually, he will win.

That is, until another figure comes flying into the fight. Dooku, arrived from wherever Qui-gon had summoned him from, locks blades with Obi-wan. Dooku was always the best swords-master of the Order. Obi-wan finds himself rapidly retreating as he tries to hold off two very aggressive Sith. A skillful twist of Dooku’s blade rips Obi-wan’s lightsaber from his hands. Qui-gon is on top of him immediately, using his superior size and strength to hold Obi-wan down.

“There’s suppressors in the fridge,” Qui-gon says as Obi-wan squirms beneath him. Dooku nods as he heads for the hut, picking up Obi-wan’s lightsaber as he goes. He wraps an arm around Obi-wan’s neck, stopping the flow of blood to his brain. “Relax, Obi-wan. We aren’t going to hurt you. But Anakin will come for you and then we will kill him. I’ll rule the galaxy. And you can rule at my side, padawan.”


	3. Planning

“I must admit I had my doubts,” Dooku says. “But the Force signature is unmistakable.” He sits on other side of Qui-gon’s table as the two drink cups of tea. Obi-wan lays on the floor, covered in drying mud, with his arms and legs bound and a gag in his mouth, since they can’t risk too much noise from him on the off chance one of Qui-gon’s neighbors passes by. They were lucky no one saw the lightsaber duel, which would have brought the Empire down on their heads by now, but neither of them believes luck will keep them safe.

“Vader will come for him. I could sense the bond growing between them when the suppressor wore off,” Qui-gon says. 

“I wouldn’t want to be him when Vader shows up. He was bad enough as a Jedi, but it’ll be much worse now that he’s a Sith. Have you heard what he did to Amidala? He’s got her under some sort of Sith spell,” Dooku says. “It’s too bad we didn’t get a hold of the old Sith holocrons. This all could have been over a long time ago.”

Qui-gon drains the rest of his cup. “We need a plan.”

“I will gather what Sith I can find. I think I can get as many as twenty by the end of the week.”

“We’ll need a planet the clones cannot access.”

“Kilata. The atmosphere is too wild for most pilots to pass through. Only Force sensitive pilots have been successful with such things.”

“That’ll limit the troops, but Vader has other Sith allies. They will no doubt follow him.”

“Who can we expect?” Dooku asks.

“Ahsoka and Barriss for starters. Maybe Vos or Secura.”

Dooku hums thoughtfully. “Vader will not be easy to kill.”

“I know,” Qui-gon says and stands up to refill the tea kettle. With enough allies, it might be possible, but it wouldn’t be easy. Nothing about Anakin Skywalker was ever easy. “He switched to Soresu,” Qui-gon says, not ready to be drawn into debates on tactics with so much else on his mind.”

“I saw. He was quite proficient in it.”

“But Soresu. Seriously? I spent years training him in Ataru and he abandons it?”

“It is certainly not my form of choice,” Dooku says.

“Did my training matter so little to him?”

“Something may have happened to change his style. An injury, perhaps?”

“He didn’t show any signs of it.”

Obi-wan stirs, finally coming back to consciousness. He tests his bonds before finding escape beyond his means. He looks up at the two older Sith before hiding himself behind his mental shields.

“He’s a mess,” Dooku says. “Get him cleaned up before the others arrive.”

Qui-gon nods. He pulls a struggling Obi-wan back into the basement. Taking the hose out again and disrobing Obi-wan entirely, he drenches the man in a stream of cold water. The mud comes off easily enough. Getting Obi-wan to submit to having his hair washed is a far more strenuous task involving threats, Force holds, and rope. Even tied to a chair, Obi-wan still struggles, still fights. In the end, Qui-gon injects him with just enough sedative to make him stop moving.

The tangles in the copper hair are brushed out. Another spray of water and soap cleans it. Qui-gon removes Obi-wan from the chair and sets him against the wall. Obi-wan slumps down on the wet floor, unable to move.

Taking out a towel, he starts to dry him off. Qui-gon can feel the tension radiating from the man. He has no doubt the man would protest to such treatment if he could. He leaves Obi-wan for a moment to collect his cleaned Jedi tunics. Unlocking the cuffs, he reassembles the clothes on Obi-wan. He reapplies the binders on his wrists but adds a short chain between the cuffs on his ankles. A heavy collar with a chain attached follows just as the sedative starts to wear off. Qui-gon won’t make the mistake of underestimating him again.

\---------------

Obi-wan trails behind Qui-gon, making a few awkward skipping steps to keep up with Qui-gon’s longer stride so he isn’t pulled off his feet. He’s led back outside, though having his boots on makes the experience of mud far more pleasant. To his horror, Adi Gallia and Ki-adi Mundi are there, their corrupted yellow eyes staring at him, analyzing his every move.

“Why the chains?” Adi asks.

“He’s still a Jedi, somehow,” Qui-gon says. “And very skilled with a lightsaber.”

“Really?” She steps closer before lifting Obi-wan’s chin to examine his eyes, still blue. He jerks away from her hand and tries to push the feelings of pain and betrayal into the Force. It is a futile action, the emotions only building as she watches him. She should have blue eyes. Her robes should be brown, not black and red. He had seen her die of Florrum. Here, she is alive. He would have been overjoyed for a chance to make up for his failures against Maul and his brother, but she has Fallen and that hurts more than her death ever could.

“We’re heading to Kilata,” Dooku says, striding forward to the small gathering. They’ll be gone before the Empire gets here.

“You’ll need to be in snub fighters to get there,” she says. “Single person fighters.”

“You’re a talented pilot. Can you handle the extra weight and close quarters?” Qui-gon asks.

She examines Obi-wan again. “Yes. Though he’ll have to be sedated.”

“Of course. We’ll be meeting with everyone else above Kilata in a few hours. Are the fighters prepared?”

Ki-adi nods. “They’re waiting for us on the cruiser.”

“Understood. Let’s get going.”

The stumbling skip step is continued as Obi-wan is lead into the dropship that had brought Ki-adi and Adi here. His odds of escape are only getting worse. They’ll sedate him soon enough. Now is the only chance he’ll get, but Qui-gon’s grip on the chain is unbreaking. Qui-gon hooks the chain into the wall as the rest of the Sith pilot the ship.

He can only watch as the ground retreats, taking with it his easiest method of escape. Dread creeps up his spine and curls in his stomach. Everyone he loved is gone. Fallen. Lost. Obi-wan doesn’t recognize the people wearing his friend’s faces.

“You’re in pain,” Qui-gon says. “Why?” 

Obi-wan licks his dry lips before speaking. “She died in front of me. And now she is here, alive, but Fallen.”

“How did she die?”

“We were chasing after Maul and his brother. She was killed in a duel between the four of us.”

“Maul? Did you not kill him at Naboo?”

“I cut him in half then and he fell down a reactor shaft. It wasn’t enough to kill him, surprisingly, and he came back for revenge.”

“Then perhaps he is still alive here. Where was he found?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you sure you don’t know?” Qui-gon steps closer, his eyes flashing gold. “We could always use more allies.”

“I don’t know. My first contact with him after his supposed death was ten years later when he was beating me to death. There wasn’t much time for conversation.”

Qui-gon sits back down, satisfied with the answer. He leans back, relaxing as his eyes flicker over the chains. “You are quite beautiful,” he says. “I never saw you as more than my Padawan when I was a Jedi. But I can see now what drew Anakin to you. There’s such a light around you. It’s almost impossible to describe. It’s so much easier to see through the darkness we now embrace.”

Obi-wan tries not to let his fear show, instead letting it bleed out into the Force. The peace that returns keeps away the thoughts growing in his head, each one worse than the next, repeating lines from reports he had read. Reports he wished he hadn’t needed to read. The details linger. The holograms, tinted blue, even the dried blood made grey. The skin broken, bruised, faded and grey. Lips parted, the moment between one breath and another, cut off. An autopsy he had witnessed. A darkness he had tried to understand so he could help find the killer.

“What are you thinking about?” Qui-gon asks.

“An investigation I was a part of during my padawan years,” Obi-wan says. The investigation had never been closed. The killer was never found. He had spent weeks in the lower floors of Coruscant, learning about the criminals and the police that catch them while his Master had been off-planet.

He had seen horrors before, happening both to him and those he tried to help. But he could separate himself. At the end of the day, he would return to the Jedi temple. He’d meditate, let the emotions slip away. On Coruscant, he could still sense the cops, the families, even the criminals. Present on the edge of his mind until he could escape off planet. And then there would be others, all of them crying out in pain, begging for relief. He couldn’t help them. Even when he tried.

A hand reaches up and brushes his hair from his eyes. “Relax, Obi-wan. You won’t be hurt. I’ll keep you safe.” Obi-wan slides away from the comforting touch, tugging slightly on the chain. “I know how much you worry about these things. You never could live in the moment.” `


	4. Fighting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments and kudos. They are greatly appreciated.

The small dropship shudders as it leaves the atmosphere, the air thinning, the temperature dropping. The black void of space welcomes them into its grasp until they enter the hangar of a massive cruiser. The hangar doors close behind them.

“I’ve sent the signal for the fighter to be prepared,” Dooku says. “Ready?”

Obi-wan collapses in Qui-gon’s arms as the sedative takes effect. Qui-gon tosses the needle aside and unhooks the chain from the wall. “We should get a house after all this. With a nice place for Obi-wan. The last Jedi. The best of us.”

Dooku raises an eyebrow. “He’s not a pet, Qui-gon.”

“I can keep him safe.”

“Your attachment will only make you vulnerable. He’ll be dead by the end of the week. Either by your hand or someone else’s.”

“I can control myself.”

“We’re Sith. Control isn’t one of our strong points.”

They enter the hanger to find Luminara waiting for them. “I’m coming with you,” she says. “Barriss will be with Vader.”

“Probably,” Dooku says. “But she nearly killed you last time. Are you sure you want to come?”

“She is my apprentice. I would do anything to get her back. As you would,” she says to Qui-gon, looking at Obi-wan.

“Fine. Let’s go,” he says.

“Bring him here,” Adi says as she opens the hood of the starfighter. Qui-gon unhooks Obi-wan’s ankles and places him gently inside. Adi climbs in after him. She secures the safety harness around the two of them. It’s a tight fit, but not painfully so. The hatch closes and she offers Qui-gon a thumbs up.

“His light is… intoxicating. I don’t want to lose him again,” Qui-gon says.

“You’re going to have some competition on that front. Once Vader is dealt with, there will be nothing tying us together. Obi-wan will either die or be taken from you.”

“Will you help me?”

“Perhaps. Now get to your fighter. Vader will be on us soon enough.”

\---------------

The other starfighters fall into position behind Adi’s. They streak across the void towards Kilata, passing through miles of space in an instant. She leans back against the body behind her. He’s warm, comfortably so. Sitting between his legs, she finds herself wondering about the sensations creeping across her skin. She recognized her own elevated heart rate as a sign of interest. She’d never had a need to do such things before. She never had a desire to, but the idea of having power of him, of controlling the last Jedi, is starting to appeal to her. Especially with the power the suffering of a Jedi would grant her. Jedi are notoriously difficult to break. War broke them, but not him. Wherever he came from, what ever he’s been through, he’s still light. Still unbroken.

She leans back again, feeling his slow breath on her neck and the gentle scratch of a beard against her tendrils. She’ll have to find some allies if she’s going to challenge Qui-gon.

She drops out of hyperspace just over Kilata. The planet below is brilliant colored and covered in the impossibly swift movements of storms and clouds. She pushes the starfighter into a steep dive. The fighter enters the atmosphere and is immediately buffeted by winds and debris. She twists around, avoiding the larger pieces. Her fighter responds a bit slower because of the extra passenger, but she can compensate.

Her fighter twists again then tips downward. Something clips the tip of one of the wings. And then she’s through. She lands on the rocky surface, safe from the brutal wind sheer by simply being too close to the ground.

A few minutes later, the rest of the starfighters land, all of them with scorch marks and minor damage. She pops open the hatch and climbs out to meet them. Jinn walks past her, choosing instead to check on Obi-wan. A few other Sith are already waiting for them. The groups intermingle, but only to discuss plans. They are here only to kill Vader, not form an alliance. Sith don’t work with each other. That is, until Vader came along and somehow crowned himself emperor of many of them. Its against their nature. Adi is certain that this fight will leave only one victor. And it isn’t going to be Vader.

\---------------

Obi-wan blinks awake as Qui-gon carries him from the starfighter. The chain is locked to the edge of Qui-gon’s fighter and his ankles are bound together again. Qui-gon sits beside him on the rocky surface, watching the rest of the former Jedi speak. The Force suppressor has worn off, but he cannot free himself from the chains. Anakin is reaching out for him, edging closer through their bond.

He has a bad feeling about this.

\---------------

Anakin grins as his friends join him in the hangar of his star destroyer. Ahsoka greets him first with a flying hug. Barriss is more reserved, instead choosing to bow slightly. The two former padawans have golden eyes and slowly creeping darkness in their veins. Their love for each other is violent, possessive, and burning. They dance among the stars, bouncing and enjoying the emotions they had denied themselves before. They will burn out soon enough. But for now, they can enjoy their youth and embrace their power. The calm, chilling darkness of the older Sith will come with experience. For now, he lets them enjoy it.

Plo Koon arrives with his children, all of them clone troopers. His eyes burn to protect them, to fight to keep them safe. Their own passion burns just as fiercely for him. They have dyed their eyes yellow since his eyes cannot be seen.

Aayla arrives with her own squad of loving troopers. Her love is softer, quieter. Her darkness comes not from love, but from passion. It consumes her actions as she tears apart world upon world of pirates and slavers. Quinlan trails after her, Asajj Ventress at his side. They often join Aayla on her hunts, but they both enjoy assassinations instead.

They take their fighters into hyperspace. What troopers can fit into the fighters join the skilled pilots. The rest follow in the Star Destroyer, ready to keep the rest of the Sith from escaping. Anakin leads the way, following the bond he traces back to Obi-wan. The other Sith will be waiting for them.

“I’ve found him. He’s in the lower hemisphere. Angle your fighters and follow me,” Anakin says. The Sith follow after him, cutting through the storm, assisted by Anakin’s incredible power.

\---------------

“They’re here,” Dooku says. Their rivals arrive with a squad of troopers, lightsabers ignited and eyes blazing. They ignite their own sabers, the red light casting bloody shadows across the rocks and parked fighters. The battle begins, the chaos of flashing sabers burning the air itself.

\---------------

Obi-wan pulls at the chains. He manages to maneuver himself to catch a stray blaster bolt on the binders around his wrists. He tugs at the collar and the chain. Lifting the entire fighter with a brief push of the Force he maneuvers himself to catch another bolt on the cuffs around his ankles.

The clones check their fire after a brief yell from Anakin. Seeing the gold in Anakin’s eyes is terrifying. He wants to help. He wants to run. It hurts to see him like this, with Ahsoka by his side, as Fallen and dark as they are. Obi-wan pulls at the chain again. The Force enhanced strength isn’t enough to break the chain. It won’t break the collar without breaking his neck. He tries to summon the lightsaber of a dead Sith. Qui-gon catches it midflight. He shakes his head at Obi-wan before returning to the fray. 

The bodies pile up. Lightsabers shatter. Limbs are severed. The darkness floods around them, choking the air from his lungs. He pulls at the chain again and manages to drag the fighter a few inches away. A hand wraps around him and a lightsaber cuts through the chain. He fights the grip around him and is met with the blazing yellow eyes of Anakin Skywalker.

The fighter beside him explodes with stray fire. He and Anakin are thrown away from each and into the ground. His head slams into the rocky ground, leaving him momentarily dizzy and his ears ringing.

“Come on, Obi-wan. We need to go.” Qui-gon says, shaking him and glancing over his shoulder. Anakin approaches, his saber ignited. “Obi-wan! Come on!” Obi-wan watches him for a moment. This is his chance.

He leaps to his feet and runs for his life, away from Qui-gon, away from Anakin. Running as fast as he possibly can. He slips into one of the ravines and follows the dark tunnels underground. He shields himself in the Force as he runs, making his way towards the heart of the planet.


	5. Running

Ahsoka drags a bound Qui-gon to Anakin’s feet. “Hello, Master,” Vader says. “Nice to see you again.”

Qui-gon’s gaze flickers towards his fallen comrades, the wounds that killed them cauterized and burning still. “Vader. Why am I still alive?”

“I felt Obi-wan die. We got his body back. He was dead. Then, our bond reforms. I follow it and find him chained to your starfighter. Chained, Qui-gon. Like an animal. No wonder he ran off.”

“I didn’t have a choice. I had to keep him safe.”

“You should have joined us. You would have understood love if you had. But you don’t. You don’t see him as your equal. You would keep him as your pet. I wouldn’t. I’d have to make him fall first, but we’ve found that I’m quite good at that. But then we’d be equals, like Ahsoka and Barriss. Did you see them today? They’re a most impressive team.”

“Says the one who’s turned Padme Amidala into his personal slave.”

“It’s impossible to be a slave when you rule the entire galaxy.”

Ahsoka and Barriss are curled together beside one of the starfighters, cleaning their sabers. The Togruta is covered in old white scars, inflicted on her by Vader himself as he dragged her to the Dark side. “I know what you do to force people to Fall. I won’t let you do it him,” Qui-gon says, gaze turning back to Anakin.

“The entire Sith population is converging on this planet. They have all sensed him now. They’ll either kill him, keep him, torture him, or break him. Once he Falls, he’ll be much safer. Now help me. I know you’ve implanted a tracker in him.”

“I didn’t.”

“Qui-gon, you forget that I know you. You wouldn’t have let him run if you wouldn’t be able to find him again. Tell me.”

“No.”

“At least tell me where you found him. He was definitely dead.”

“Why should I?”

“Is this really the hill you want to die on?”

“We settled on him jumping from another timeline. We talked for a while. It made enough sense.”

“How?”

“The will of the Force? I don’t know.”

Vader sighs. “Ahsoka, Ventress, I need your skills. I need the frequency for the tracking device.”

“Any rules?” Ahsoka asks.

“No killing and he has to remain stable enough to move.”

“Understood.”

“Plo and Aayla will set up camp. Get moving.”

Obi-wan shivers as he crawls through the small tunnel, the cold rocks scrapping his palms and knees. The rock presses against his back, dragging at his robes. At first, he could walk through the tunnel. Now it’s only getting smaller.

Another few inches of space are lost. He drops to his stomach, using his forearms now to propel himself forward. The rocks press against his back at chest, pulling at his skin, at his hair. It’s too dark to see anything. There is hardly enough room to breathe. He wiggles forward. This has to open up. He can’t go back.

The walls get closer, touching both of his shoulders, hemming him in. He tries to breathe, tries to ignore the crushing weight of a thousand tons of rock above him. The pressure on his body increases, trying to hold him back. He breathes out, trying to relax his muscles enough to let him through. The collar still stuck around his neck scrapes the rock, gouging out small scratches and dust. The chain clinks as he moves, pressing painfully into his side.

His hands hit open space. The soft gurgle of liquid reaches him. He inches forward, digging a sharp rock through the skin on his back, now exposed by torn tunics. His next attempt to pull himself forward is made easy by crumbling rocks. His body slips forward, losing its grips, and falling into the darkness below.

He lands with a soft splash in the water below. The water glows brightly with tiny bioluminescent life forms activated by the sudden disturbance. He senses them as he stands in knee-deep water. Blood drips from his hands and mixes with the water. The glow changes briefly from blue to orange as they interact with the foreign substance. They’re just curious. Not a threat to him, hopefully.

His chain clinks as he walks against the slow current. The creatures clinging to his water-soaked tunics drip back down to the pool below. He’ll need to find clean water soon. He can supplement himself with the Force, but that will only add a few days. He’s not in the sun or heat, which helps, though trekking through caves and blood loss will certainly not help the matter.

He slips on a lose rock and plunges into the water. It flares briefly orange, blood and microbes interacting. He forces himself back to his feet. No doubt such microbes could lead to an infection. He tries to sweep the glowing water from his wounds with limited success. He needs to keep moving, needs to find someplace that they can’t reach.

Screaming echoes throughout the small campsite as Ahsoka and Ventress try to drag information out of Qui-gon. It’s been going on for long enough that no one reacts. Aayla and Plo continue to collect supplies from the dead. Vader sits on his starfighter watching the brilliant swirl of clouds. A few pieces of debris fly by, caught eternally in the torrential vortex. He calls up the troopers in the caves. “How goes the search?”

“Not well. There are many tunnels and the metal deposits are interfering with our sensors,” Bly says. “Some of these tunnels are too small for us to crawl through, but maybe not for someone desperate enough to cut themselves bloody. Kenobi is a bit smaller than us. He might have a better chance at getting through some of this than we do.”

“What about Ahsoka?”

“She is probably narrow enough in the shoulders, but not with her lekku. She wouldn’t be able to crawl nearly as flat as Kenobi.”

“Barriss?”

“She has the best chance of all of us.”

“Alright, Bly. I’m sending Barriss to you.”

“Yes sir.”

Vader flips off the com then enters the tent Qui-gon is in. He wrinkles his nose at the smell of blood and excrement. Ventress is at work, while Ahsoka and Barriss watch, still learning from the older Sith. Ahsoka is twirling a knife between her fingers, impatiently waiting her turn. Barriss is fiddling with an old detonator, not as interested as Ahsoka is.

“How goes the interrogation?” Vader asks.

“Well enough. It’ll take time though,” Ahsoka says, gesturing at Qui-gon with a bloody knife in her hand.

“Bly needs you down in the caves, Barriss. You up for some spelunking?”

She wrinkles her nose in disgust. “Why can’t someone else do it?”

“You’re the only one small enough.”

“Fine. But you owe me one. You know how much I hate enclosed spaces.”

“Sure. Whatever. Just go find Obi-wan. Now.”

Barriss drops down into the ravine and meets Bly at the mouth of the cave system. “We’ve identified a few possible tunnels that he could get through that we can’t.”

“Get me a rope. I don’t want to get lost,” she says.

Crawling through the tunnel is unpleasant as she thought it would be. After several missed tries, this new tunnel provides her first real clue. There are numerous scratches along the walls. A long hanging rock carries a splatter of blood and a bit of cloth. She says nothing to the clones waiting for her signal. They’ll need one eventually, but not yet.

Barriss drops down to her stomach. Her skirt and hood are made of thick enough fabric that they do not tear. The rocks she passes under carry scratches and growing amounts of blood and fabric. She’s surprised the man managed to force his way through here. She crawls through another patch of blood. It’ll take hours to wash it out of her skirts. She’ll make better time than Kenobi, simply because she’s small enough to not meet such great resistance. She’ll find him eventually.


	6. Chasing

The collar chafes at his neck. The skin is now rubbed raw and red, the process only sped up by the water. It burns terribly but there is little he can do about it. Obi-wan climbs upwards, scaling a small waterfall. The rock is smoother here, evidence of a previously more powerful water flow. Small clusters of soft moss, glowing a soft orange, cover the damp rocks. Droplets splatter against the rocks, only adding to the growing moisture on his skin and slipping grip.

Memories of his friends, now with golden eyes and red blades, appear with every breath. There is no doubt that Qui-gon or Anakin is following him. He needs to get deeper underground, but so far, the passage has led only up. Dimly, he’s aware of a presence following behind him. The signature is too distorted by the Darkside for him to identify. He assumes it’s not Qui-gon. He would be far too large to fit through the tunnels. Anakin might be able to, but he probably isn’t desperate enough to tear himself apart.

Obi-wan pulls himself over the top of the waterfall and into a space just large enough to crawl through. Such a tunnel would easily have been filled with water if a rainstorm occurred on the surface, but for now he can settle for crawling through a few inches of water. He stops to wrap extra fabric around his knees and palms.

The tunnel opens up into a large cavern. Massive crystals hang down from the ceiling. Twisting webs from silk crawlers hang down from the ceiling. Said crawlers are slinking along the floor, humming and eating through the shale rock. Hundreds of tunnels line the walls. Most are too small, belonging to the juvenile crawlers. The larger ones are formed by water and possibly the larger crawlers.

Obi-wan smiles.

Choosing one at random, he leaps up to it and crawls inside. He tries to erase the markings he left and replace the webbing. He starts crawling again until the tunnel splits. It’s too small for him to fit through.

Obi-wan sighs and begins the slow trek back. He picks another tunnel. The Force offers no opinion, so Obi-wan picks another one and begins to crawl.

He’s suddenly interrupted when a hand catches his ankle and pulls him back out of the tunnel. Obi-wan tumbles down before landing lightly on the rocky floor. Barriss leaps down from the wall and lands beside him. She’s older then when he saw her last, probably in her mid-twenties now. How far off is his timeline from this one?

He slides into a defensive stance, but he has no lightsaber. She raises her hands. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to protect you.”

“Why don’t you just hand me a lightsaber and leave me be? I can defend myself.”

“Not against so many. Vader can protect you. He’ll be happy to see you again.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather stay here.”

“It is for your own safety. Come with me.”

He shakes his head.

“So be it.”

Her lightsaber ignites. He barely manages to leap out of the way of her first swing. He Force-throws a few rocks at her, which are easily deflected by her lightsaber. He leaps out of the way of her saber strokes, throwing rocks, until he finally catches her saber wrist. He twists sharply, forcing the saber to fall from her hand. He reaches for it but is met with her second lightsaber, ignited and inches from his eye, and her hand yanking on the chain still locked to his neck, holding him still.

The second saber shouldn’t have surprised him. Anakin had told him of her skill in duel wielding after their confrontation at the Temple following the bombing.

She summons her first saber back and hooks it to her belt as she removes a small blaster. He keeps still, not thrilled with the idea of having his eye burnt out. The stun bolt hits him in the chest. The energy jumps across his nerves and into his brain and he collapses.

\-----------

Barriss pulls the Jedi’s limp body over to the wall. He was far stronger than she had been told. No one should have been able to disarm her, especially not an unarmed Jedi. She uses her saber to melt to chain and attach it to the wall. In the process, she finds the extensive damage the Jedi had inflicted on himself. His hands and forearms are bloody even where he had tried to cover his skin with fabric from other parts of his tunic. Long tears run along his tunic and are accompanied by deep abrasions underneath. Some of the injuries glow slightly orange, probably from the contaminated water. The collar itself has left the skin raw and red, but not yet bleeding.

Underneath all the bruising, the resemblance to Obi-wan Kenobi is startling. She can see why Vader has become obsessed with this Jedi. Now she has an opportunity to get out from under his thumb. To get Ahsoka out from under his thumb.

The Jedi comes around silently. One moment awake, one moment asleep. “Barriss Offee,” he says. She has his attention now that’s he’s been overpowered. He’ll have to listen to her.

“Vader wants you,” she says.

Kenobi looks her over. “Then where is he?”

“I want something from him. They can’t get down here, so we’re going to make a trade. You for Ahsoka.”

“She’s his prisoner?”

“We all are. Vader trusts no one. He implanted explosives in our bodies in case we ever turned against him. She can’t leave him.”

“Does she want to?”

“I’ve been working with her for months. I can get her away from him. I can keep her safe. But I need you to remove the explosives from me.”

“I can’t help you.”

“You have to. He tortured her for months to force her to Fall. He’ll do it again if it suits him.” That seems to pull the right strings. Jedi care, and she has no doubt this man is a Jedi, even if she’s still uncertain about his identity. Jedi would sacrifice themselves for another if they had reason. She just has to give him that reason. “Please, I need your help.” She holds out a knife to him.

“Get the collar off. Then I’ll remove the explosives.”

“I can’t trust you. There’s too much at stake for me.” She shares her agony, her sorrow with him. This is the only way to save Ahsoka.

“Do you understand how much is at stake for me?” he asks.

“I’ll do it myself if you won’t help. I’m still a Sith, Jedi. But this is the only way to save Ahsoka.”

Kenobi sighs. She’s pushed the right buttons guessing that if this was an alternate universe Kenobi, as Vader suggested, then he would still be connected the Vader’s former apprentice. He’s also unlikely to let her perform surgery on herself. It’s too risky for both of them. “Where are they?”

“Calf,” she says and lifts her skirt slightly. He brings the Force to bear, stopping the explosives from activating and sets to work with the knife.

“Vader will know you did this,” he says.

“I know.”

Kenobi nods and continues to work. Barriss clings to the Darkside, dulling the pain with rage. She will get Ahsoka out. Vader will never place another scar on her body. Vader will never hurt her again.

She scowls when she feels the touch of the Light, soothing the injury. She slaps a bacta patch over it as Kenobi launches the explosive down one of the tunnels. A moment later, it explodes, kicking up dust, but not harming them.

“Vader will call in a moment,” she says.

“What will he do to me?” Kenobi asks.

“If you’re truly Kenobi, he’ll probably force you to Fall. I wouldn’t bother trying to resist. He gets everyone eventually.”


	7. Negotiating

“I have him,” Barriss says over the comm. Vader smiles and turns to Qui-gon. The rival Sith is sprawled out on the ground, covered in blood.

“Seems I won’t be needing your help after all,” Vader says.

“I want to trade him for Ahsoka,” Barriss says.

Qui-gon cackles. “Seems your perfect soldiers aren’t so loyal after all,” he says. Vader kicks Qui-gon in the face, knocking the other Sith back to the ground. Qui-gon smiles through bloody teeth and laughs again.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Vader growls as he storms out of the tent.

“I want Ahsoka freed. You remove the bomb from her, and I trade Kenobi for Ahsoka.”

Vader quickly pulls up his monitoring feed. Barriss’s explosives have gone off. She must have removed them. Damn it. He shouldn’t have shut the stupid thing off, but he hated being distracted during interrogations. “Ahsoka doesn’t want to go with you. You know the bombs are just in case you get captured. You’re not enslaved.”

“So, you say. But I want out. And Ahsoka is coming with me.”

“She doesn’t want to go with you. She’s my apprentice,” Vader growls as he storms out of the tent and into the open. The Force is seething around him, twisting with warning as if a storm is about to break.

“Do you think I don’t know how she got those scars?” Barriss says, voice eerily calm.

“Of course. She knows I had to make her Fall. It was the only way to keep her safe,” Vader says.

“You changed her because you wanted her, not because you cared,” Barriss said. “You aren’t fighting for freedom and safety. You’re a monster. And Ahsoka doesn’t belong to you.”

“Then why don’t we ask her?”

“And let you reinforce the brainwashing you’ve been beating into her? No. You’re going to send her to me now. I’ll leave Kenobi somewhere you can find him.”

“I’m not going to let you run off with both of them.”

“Either you do as I say, or I kill him.”

“Kill him, and you have no leverage.”

“True. But I don’t have to kill him to make him useless to you. Should I start cutting him open? He won’t be much of a Sith if he can’t even move. Or I could start on his memories. I could erase every mention of you. I could twist his mind into such a mess that you will never be able to get him out. And even after all that, you would still want him back. Do as I say or lose him.”

“You don’t have the power.”

“You forget that I was a healer. I am capable of physically altering his brain. No amount of Force shielding will protect him from that.”

“And what if I kill Ahsoka?”

“You won’t. Even now, you’re planning how to get her back. You believe she’ll come back to you. You’ll never kill her unless you are certain she will never return to you.”

“I’ll send Ahsoka to you,” he says as he brainstorms countermeasures. “And I’ll deactivate the bombs.”

“I’ll leave Kenobi somewhere for you to find. I’m sending you coordinates. Don’t make me wait.”

\------------

Obi-wan leans against the wall of the cave, past the point of caring that the moss is clinging to his already filthy tunics. Barriss is pacing around the cave, the Darkside trailing after her. She isn’t so mired in it as Qui-gon is. In this universe, Barriss has something to live for. She’s trying to pull herself away from the Dark now that she’s seen the horrors it can achieve. She’s still dark, but no longer Sith. She reminds him vaguely of Ventress, turning away from the Sith and slowly digging herself out of the Darkside. It is a long and miserable path. She’ll need support if she’s to make it out.

Ahsoka might just be the one she needs. And they might just be the ones who can guide each other out of the darkness.

“He won’t let her go,” Obi-wan says.

“You underestimate how important Obi-wan Kenobi is to him,” Barriss says as her fingers dance nervously on her comm. She’s waiting for someone, he realizes. She does have allies.

“Are you going to kill me?” he asks. If Vader is truly capable of turning people against their will, leaving Obi-wan alive would a tactical mistake. He watches Barriss’s face as she considers the question, noting the twitch in her eye.

“If I kill you, Vader won’t have anything to chase after,” she says. “You care about Ahsoka. Make a distraction. Help us escape.”

“You’d let me go?”

He sees a great sadness in her eyes when she meets his gaze. “I’m done with the war,” she says. “And if you’re really a Jedi, surely you understand wanting to stop hurting others.”

He knows she’s trying to manipulate him. He doubts she is doing any of this out of selflessness. Its more likely she wants to abandon the galaxy to its suffering and find some isolated planet to enjoy herself. Turning away from the war, abandoning millions to die, isn’t a role any Jedi would support, but he needs Barriss to release him. “I understand,” he says. “I’ll distract him for you.” He sees the hints of youth on her face when she decides that he’s telling the truth. He’ll distract Vader, but he doesn’t plan on handing himself over. “And if Vader doesn’t let her go?” he asks.

“You heard what I told him.”

“But what you claim is impossible. Physically altering the brain to delete certain memories is nearly impossible, even with the right equipment.”

“Crude alterations are still possible. It’s likely you would end up in a vegetative state, but I could effectively erase your memories. It would make you much less of a threat to me.”

“Then why haven’t you?”

“Because Ahsoka thinks you’re the one person who might be able to beat Vader in fight. Personally, I think she’s heard too many legends about Obi-wan Kenobi, the Sith killer, but I trust her. If you are who Vader thinks you are, then you are the galaxy’s only hope.”

\------------

Dooku drifts in the atmosphere of Kilata, his ship locked in orbit as he attempts to fix the hyperdrive. Vader had been far more powerful than either he or Qui-gon had anticipated. Vader is no longer an out of control wildfire. He’s spent long enough in the dark to settle into the cold, calculating void. Qui-gon hasn’t reached that point. He’s still burning, completely blinded by desire and power to plan anything in advance. It’s a problem that’s plagued Qui-gon since his padawanship, one that Dooku had tried and failed to fix.

Regardless, a dozen of Dooku’s allies are dead, including Mundi. A few managed to escape, but Qui-gon is captured. He’ll try to contact Gallia and Unduli. Those two are skilled enough pilots to get off planet. Dooku, unfortunately, isn’t much of a pilot or mechanic.

He scowls and shoves the wires aside when they spark. He sends out a coded message to Gallia along with a bribe to ensure she will actually pick him up and not shoot him down.

He briefly considers attempting to rescue Qui-gon, but he sees no true value in retrieving him. Without Qui-gon, the Sith he loosely led will be vulnerable to a power grab. Dooku has never been one to pass up the opportunity to gain more power, even at the cost of a man he once cared for. Not even Qui-gon means anything to him anymore.

\------------

“Cody?” Rex says over the comm. “There’s something you should know.”

Cody, on board a massive star cruiser floating in the darkness of space, picks up the encrypted comm the two clones share. The other members of the 212th and every clone they had managed to pick up in the past several years are gathered on a dozen similar starships as they search for someplace to settle down, far from the Sith. The Sith factions are still vying for their allegiance, sometimes with negotiations, often with threats. Cody leads the clones now, keeping them safe from the Sith who would use them as an army of slaves.

“What is it?” Cody asks Rex. He had left Rex with Vader as his eyes and ears to the innerworkings of the Empire.

“Vader found a Jedi.”

“Which Jedi?”

“The one that was supposed to be yours. Obi-wan Kenobi.”


	8. Trading

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Two updates in two days.

Ahsoka treks down into the tunnels, Anakin following close behind her. According to Anakin, Barriss had found Master Kenobi, but couldn’t move from where she was without risking losing him. She remembers meeting Anakin after he Fell. She remembers the terror that nearly suffocated her as she tried to get away. It seems Master Kenobi is feeling something similar. Meeting a Sith can be a shock to a Jedi, especially a Sith that used to be a friend. She hadn’t understood Anakin at first. Then, he had helped her Fall.

She doesn’t remember much of the year he spent helping her into the Darkside. She knows he caused the network of scars that she bears now. She knows he caused her unspeakable agony in order to break her, but she remembers very little of the agony, only the quiet moments in between, when he promised that things would be better, that she would be safer, once she Fell.

The bad memories only return when she inflicts pain on others. Torturing Qui-gon with the same techniques Vader had once used against her had brought up flashes of the awfulness. She had had to step away, leaving Ventress to deal with Qui-gon. In the end, it hadn’t truly been necessary. Barriss had found Kenobi long before Ventress got anything out of him. A small, suppressed part of her is glad they do not have to continue torturing him.

At twenty years old, she is considered one of the most feared beings in the galaxy. She knows Anakin is proud of her for that. She also knows that something inside her is fundamentally broken. Barriss seems to think it can be fixed. Ahsoka isn’t so sure.

“I’m really excited to meet him,” Ahsoka says. “I was too young to remember when he killed Maul, but I heard the stories. He must have been an amazing Jedi.”

“There was no one better,” Anakin says, a smile spreading across his blood spattered face. For the first time since the schism, she senses a flash of hope and excitement from him. He finally has the proof he wants that death isn’t permanent. He will finally have his master back. “He’ll be just as amazing as a Sith.”

The bond between them is open, flooded with Anakin's excitement. It is only with her that he ever lets his guard down like this. She’s his best friend, his loyal student. She will never abandon him.

A headache forms behind her eyes as the thoughts circulate. She is Anakin’s best friend. She is his student. She will never abandon him. She will never abandon him. She will never abandon him.

“Ahsoka?” Anakin says, snapping her out of her thoughts before the spiral into that place she chooses not to remember. It is better to forget. “Barriss says she’ll meet you a quarter klick ahead of us. When you get there, I want you to ensure you hit Obi-wan with this dart. He’ll be scared of you, but we’ll change that soon enough. You’ll finally get to know my brother-padawan.”

Ahsoka smiles as she accepts the dart. The two of them are standing in front of a much smaller tunnel branching off from the main one. Anakin could fit if he took his armor off, but it wouldn’t be comfortable. Ahsoka could fit easily enough. She isn’t happy with how vulnerable she will be while travelling through it, but Barriss is on the other side and Anakin will guard her back. She has nothing to worry about. “I won’t let you down.”

\---------------

Obi-wan can sense Ahsoka’s distorted Force signature making their way towards them. He can sense Anakin reaching across their bond, Anakin’s excitement flooding Obi-wan’s senses. He can sense the twisted bond between Anakin and Ahsoka and the subtle manipulations threaded through it, invisible to all but one who is looking for them. Barriss is pacing, a blaster with stun bolts up her sleeve for Ahsoka and her lightsabers at the ready should something go wrong.

The Force flows over him, assuring him that this is the right decision, though he is uncomfortable with Barriss’s plan to stun and kidnap Ahsoka. He had managed to convince her to make it her backup plan, but if the brainwashing is as thorough as the bond indicates, Ahsoka won’t be able to leave Anakin willingly.

“I think I can briefly block the bond. Anakin will know, but it will give her a few moments of clarity,” Obi-wan says. “Talk to her.”

“I will,” Barriss says. Obi-wan nods and accepts the hand Barriss offers as he gets to his feet. Her saber ignites and flicks through the collar, freeing him. The exposed skin beneath burns in the cool air, but it’s a relief to be free of it. He stands up straight, ignoring the aches of so many open cuts and wounds.

He reaches out into the Force, feeling the darkness that curls towards him, trying to drown him. The light is suffocating beneath the misery and dread that weighs heavily on the galaxy.

“Barriss?” Ahsoka says, her scarred face poking out of wall. Her expression twists into confusion when she sees Obi-wan. “What’s going on?”

Obi-wan soothes the ripples of darkness and allows his Force presence to step between Anakin and Ahsoka, muting the bound. Ahsoka gasps and stumbles out of the tunnel she crawled through. “What are you doing? What’s happening?” Her golden eyes flicker, then fade to yellow.

“We can leave,” Barriss says, gently taking Ahsoka’s hand. “We don’t have to keep fighting this war. Vader doesn’t have to hurt you anymore.”

Ahsoka blinks and frowns. “I will never abandon him.”

“You’re not abandoning him,” Barriss says. “He knows that we’re leaving. He said it was okay. We need some time away.”

Ahsoka clumsily reaches towards the bond, but Obi-wan gently redirects her grasp. Anakin is no longer directly influencing her thoughts, but the conditioning remains.

“No,” Ahsoka says, eyes flaring gold as she reaches for her lightsabers. “Why are you saying this?” She glares at Obi-wan, zeroing in on him as the threat to her and Barriss. “What did you do to her?” Her hand twitches. The Force provides no warning. Her thoughts betray no intent. He doesn’t even realize what she’s done until he feels the dart bite into his leg. “I know you’re afraid,” she says as she wraps her arms around him, holding him up as his legs go numb. “I was too, but Anakin will look after you. I promise.”

Obi-wan struggles against the paralysis, but the toxin is spreading fast. He groans when Ahsoka’s grip slackens and they both crash to the ground. Through his blurring vision he sees Barriss and her blaster. He tries to reach out to her, terror bubbling up when she shakes her head. He won’t even have a chance to run. “He’ll either find his way to you or follow us,” Barriss says as she picks up Ahsoka.

“No,” Obi-wan says, trying to get his limbs to cooperate. He can’t be left here defenseless.

Barriss doesn’t look back as she walks away. She offers no apology, no words of comfort. Obi-wan has played the part she needed him to. Ahsoka will be free. Barriss will be free. And Anakin will have someone else to fixate on.

\---------------

Inside a small starship, Luminara flies down from the atmosphere of Kilata to the beacon Barriss had activated. She ignores Dooku’s beacon. Someone else will deal with him. At the moment, Barriss is more important. Despite the rift between them, her former padawan had reached out to her, begging for help. It is a bond that she hopes will bring Barriss back to her and makes them allies again. This is the first step. 

When the schism began, she and Barriss had found themselves on opposite sides. Barriss had truly believed Vader could reform the Order and turn them away from the dark side. Luminara had seen only youthful passion, sure to flare to destroy itself before any change occurred. Instead, Vader had burned his way through the Order. Qui-gon had stood against him, but the dark side had overwhelmed Qui-gon. The destruction that followed had killed or turned every Jedi in the Temple and across the galaxy. Their own battle took place deep within the Temple, their blue and green sabers grinding together as they were consumed by hatred for each other. Each saw the other as a traitor, as turning away from the Jedi and the family that had raised them. Vader was the reformer. Compared to him, Qui-gon was the traditionalist.

Like Qui-gon, Luminara believed in moderation and the Code. She believed in the Jedi Order. Vader was ready to burn it down and start again. Barriss agreed with him and they fought, their bond breaking.

They still disagree, but Luminara is willing to extend a helping hand, though she is motivated by the desire to deprive Vader of his staunchest ally. Without Ahsoka, Vader will be weakened. Perhaps they will have another chance at shifting the balance of power.

She lands the small ship on the surface. Minutes later, Barriss appears, Ahsoka draped over her shoulders. The darkside demands that she kill them both, but Luminara is not without control. For her, the darkside is cold, a creeping chill inside her bones. She is without the raw power that makes Vader and Qui-gon so strong, but she has the patience that once made a man like Sidious so powerful.

“Padawan,” she greets as Barriss settles into the copilot seat. Her former padawan is covered in dirt and blood, though her dark robes hide much of it. The darkside sees only a weakness to be exploited. The small part of her that isn’t a Sith wants to reach out, to help. The darkside mercilessly crushes the stray thought.

“Unduli,” Barriss replies, refusing to return the camaraderie Luminara had offered. It’s a wise choice. Any camaraderie Luminara offers is based on logic and selfish desire. It is expected among darksiders, which is why Barriss’s love for Ahsoka surprises Luminara when she senses it. It isn’t quite the selfish love, the attachment, that the darkside feeds on. Something has changed. Something so fundamental that she dares not let herself consider it. Not now. Not when she needs the darkness to protect her mind from the horrors she has committed. “Let’s go,” Barriss says. “Vader won’t be distracted for long.”


	9. Falling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for amputation

In the center of camp, Anakin sits beside the still body of Obi-wan Kenobi, the Jedi having been found and carried out of the caves. Ahsoka’s dart had done its job, rendering the Jedi helpless while they dug him out of the tunnels. Certain that Ahsoka would be stopped by Secura and Vos, Anakin had turned his attention to Obi-wan. Unfortunately, it had come at a cost. Ahsoka is gone, carried off by Unduli and Barriss towards whatever prison they have set up for her. It was clearly a trap by Qui-gon’s allies to remove his favored student. Secura and Vos hadn’t been fast enough to stop them. He’ll send the two Shadows after her, but for now he has something far better.

He hesitantly brushes Obi-wan’s hair of out his eyes. It’s shorter than it was when he died and has a few strands of grey at the temples. His beard is fuller and longer but is still meticulously groomed. He had found new scars when the medics had pulled off Obi-wan’s tunics to treat the cuts and scrapes that covered him. There were scars from blasters and shrapnel. There were new lightsaber burns that were still pink, others that were slowly fading to white. There were scars from a shockwhip and a virboblade. There were scars around his wrists from struggling against chains that bound him.

This Obi-wan never died. This Obi-wan lived another life, one Anakin no longer knows. This is not the Obi-wan Anakin knew. This is not his brother-Padawan. As much as it pains him to acknowledge that, it does not dampen the creeping possessiveness for him that has only grown with their time together. This is still Obi-wan. He can feel their bond in the Force, far stronger than it had been before. It seems they were master and apprentice in this other life.

“Are we ready to depart?” Anakin asks when he senses Rex enter the tent. The loyal captain was devastated that Ahsoka was gone. Maybe Secura and Vos could include Rex in the hunt for Ahsoka. It would likely make the man feel like he was doing something to help.

“The camp is almost torn down. Jinn is sedated and ready for transport. Our dead have been cremated. The enemies have been searched for useful intel and supplies. We didn’t find anything useful, but I did collect their lightsabers for you,” Rex says.

“Good,” Anakin says as he injects Obi-wan with another round of sedatives to keep him subdued until they reached the _Devastator. _He picks up Obi-wan and ensures the man’s head rests against his shoulder instead of lolling back.

“Is it really him?” Rex asks.

“Its not my Obi-wan,” Anakin says. “But he will be. He’s lived a different life than the one my Obi-wan knew, but he is still Obi-wan.”

“Then you’ll make him Fall.”

“I have to. It’s the only way to keep him safe.”

“It took you a year to turn Ahsoka and she was a padawan then. It could take much longer if he’s a Jedi knight.”

“Don’t worry, Rex,” Anakin says. “I’ve gotten better at breaking people. He’ll be standing beside me again soon.”

Anakin walks out of the tent and to his fighter. Rex joins him, allowing Obi-wan to be squished between them as they leave Kilata behind.

Anakin smiles as they break through the rough atmosphere. He leans back, enjoying the warmth of Obi-wan’s body, as he heads towards the _Devastator. _

Soon, everything will be perfect. Obi-wan will be at his side. Ahsoka will be returned to him. Qui-gon will be destroyed. The galaxy will finally be at peace.

\----------

Qui-gon scowls as Ventress drags him into the holding cells of Vader’s flagship. Dooku’s former apprentice should have been on their side. She hates Skywalker, always has, but she hates Dooku more after he tried to kill. She really shouldn’t have taken it so personally. Dooku had tried to kill Qui-gon a dozen times now, but that’s because Dooku wants to lead them. It was simply a power play. Qui-gon had expected it and laughed about it with Dooku over dinner afterwards.

Regardless of Ventress’s feelings, he still respects her. She’s a skilled Sith, not as skilled as he is, but growing more powerful by the day. She’s not a bad torturer, but she is far too personally involved in it to actually break him. She’s more likely to accidently kill him than make hi m talk.

Unfortunately, respect only goes so far.

The moment they step into the turbolift, he launches himself into her, slamming her into the wall. Even with his hands bound behind him, he’s taller and heavier than Ventress, giving him the advantage he needs to pin her against the floor. She shrieks and uses the Force to launch him into the wall. He responds by launching Force lightning into the walls, which travels through the metal and into Ventress. She screams and screams and Qui-gon laughs.

Qui-gon summons Ventress’s lightsabers from her belt and use them to cut open the binders. He considers killing her, but the torture she inflicted on him is calling up his more sadistic side. And killing her would bring down the wrath of the Nightsisters, whom he had been trying to recruit as allies despite their dislike of Dooku and every other former Jedi turned Sith.

The blood trailing off the cuts she had carved into his arms, legs, and chests drips to the floor as he slaps her back to consciousness. He ignites one of her sabers, holding it over her arm. “Hello, darling,” he says as her chilly blue eyes meet his own. “You shouldn’t have tried to take Obi-wan from me.”

He brings the saber down, cutting through the flesh and bones of her arm. She passes out too quickly for him to enjoy it, but he’s not done. He ignites the second saber and waits for her to wake.

\----------

The bridge of the _Mirjahaal_ is quiet as they travel through hyperspace. The anticipation in the air hangs thick on their shoulders. The clones of the 212th have already heard the news. After a dozen dead Jedi generals and the insane general that was Pong Krell, they aren’t certain if this is good news. Cody, on the other hand, is quite certain. Afterall, he’ll outrank the Jedi this time. He’ll protect him and use him and love him and he will never be able to betray them.

“Do we still have a lock on the _Devastator?” _Cody asks.

“Captain Rex is still feeding us the coordinates, but he says they’ll be going into hyperspace soon towards Coruscant,” one of the techs, Marble, says.

Cody runs a few mental calculations. They won’t reach Kilata soon enough and he doesn’t dare bring the clones towards the Core. The Empire considers them traitors and is still calling for their execution. The planets of the Core are guarded by the droid army Vader had reprogrammed. The man is alarmingly skilled at robotics. It had cost them a dozen ships in one of their last confrontations, but this time they aren’t taking the chance.

“Change course,” Cody says. “Put us between them and Coruscant. Prepare the gravity well and contact the _Nau’ul _and the _Winter Star_.”

“Sir?” Boil asks. Boil is his second in command and is one of the only survivors of Ghost company. Krell had been very happy to decimate their ranks the moment he had the chance. They had killed him and blamed it on the droids. No one had suspected anything, not when the casualties the clones experienced aligned with being overwhelmed.

“We’re setting a trap. With any luck, we’ll kill Vader and Jinn. And send a message to Rex. The timing needs to be perfect or we’ll lose Kenobi too.”

\----------

Barriss is sitting on the opposite bunk as if nothing has changed. As if she hadn’t just betrayed everything Ahsoka lived for. Rage trickles through Ahsoka’s veins. “You kidnapped me,” she says, her voice low and harsh as she uses her rage to cover the hurt Barriss has inflicted. “You betrayed the Empire. And you betrayed me.”

Barriss looks down at the floor. “I’m sorry,” Barriss says. “I know it was wrong to take you against your will.”

Ahsoka’s hands inch towards her lightsabers, but she doesn’t draw them. Barriss hadn’t disarmed her, hadn’t restrained her. Her heart screams to give her the benefit of the doubt. Barriss wouldn’t join Qui-gon, not after he destroyed Mirial. Qui-gon was cruel for the sake of cruelty, so lost in the Darkside that he fed off the destruction he caused. Ahsoka could never abide by that, even surrounded by the Darkside. She still needs people, still loves them and cares for them, despite how easy it is to lose herself and kill them. Vader had promised her freedom and a galaxy at peace. Qui-gon had offered revenge and a comforting sort of madness.

The choice hadn’t been as easy of she assured Vader that it was.

“Vader tortured you for a year,” Barriss says. “I hate that he did that to you, and I hate that you forgave him. I’m sorry that I hurt you, but I need you to be away from him so that we can talk. Really talk, without him listening in over your bond. Afterwards, if you want to kill me and leave, I won’t stop you.”

“And what about Unduli?”

“She was a way off Kilata. She means nothing to me.”

Ahsoka leans forward, considering Barriss and the Force around her. She senses no bound between the former master and padawan. She senses no ill intent. “I’ll listen to what you have to say, on one condition,” Ahsoka says. “I want your and Unduli’s lightsabers.”

Barriss doesn’t hesitate to hand over her own sabers, but Ahsoka can sense her apprehension. It seems Unduli won’t be as willing as Barriss is. She really hopes she doesn’t have to kill Barriss. As angry as she is, she stills cares for Barriss. She still loves her.


	10. Choosing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: The chapter contains mentions of rape, excessive gore, and physical abuse.

Qui-gon’s tongue slowly trails up his palms as he licks the blood off his hands while staring down the unfortunate clone trooper that had happened upon him. The armored man backs away and nearly trips over their own feet as Qui-gon stalks forward, his bloodstained teeth on display. He plants a hand on the trooper’s chest, pinning them to the wall. With a wave of the Force, he flicks off the man’s helmet.

“Hello there,” Qui-gon says as he squeezes the man’s heart and lungs with the Force.

Blood begins to dribble down his chin as the clone coughs and spasms. Qui-gon leans closer and licks the tears off the dying man’s face. The corpse falls to the floor with a clatter. 

Qui-gon shivers happily as the Darkside washes over him. Anakin was a fool to leave him alive and more of a fool to bring Qui-gon past his defenses and onto his ship.

Steering large squads of clones away from him with a touch of the Force, Qui-gon continues his leisurely stride towards the detention levels. Obi-wan will be there, safely contained and waiting for Qui-gon to whisk him away.

He finds Obi-wan wrestling with a dozen clones in one of the cells. It seems whatever sedative they gave him wore off faster than expected, leaving Obi-wan free.

Qui-gon leans against the wall to watch as Obi-wan struggles. He’s strong, yes, but he’s also weakened and outnumbered and facing clones that have gotten very good at subduing and killing Jedi. Obi-wan goes down under a dogpile of clones.

Then one of them looks up at Qui-gon. He offers the man a jaunty wave before snapping his neck. The clones abandon Obi-wan to face the larger threat that Qui-gon presents, but they’re no match for a Sith with a lightsaber.

He slaughters them, his saber cutting through armor and flesh like butter. The stench of burnt blood and ozone fills the room as Qui-gon stalks forward. Obi-wan scrambles off the floor, bruised from his fight, but still frustratingly defiant.

“Surely you don’t want to stay here,” Qui-gon says.

“And return to your basement to be chained like a dog? I don’t think so,” Obi-wan says as he raises his fists.

He worries for a moment that Obi-wan is going to force Qui-gon to kill him, but Obi-wan freezes. Qui-gon feels the agonizing wave of Vader’s Force presence a moment after him. The horrible, burning fire of Vader’s power pours over him. Qui-gon responds in kind, flooding the Force with his own power, a chilling abyss of darkness that consumes all that it touches. Obi-wan goes pale but backs away from them as Vader finally arrives.

“Hello Master,” Vader says as he ignites his saber.

“Padawan,” Qui-gon says. It has been far too long since they’ve had a proper fight. Their sabers itch to cross each other, the crystals screaming in dissonance. The broken ends of the bond crackle and spark as the Force presences grate against each other.

Qui-gon cackles as he charges forward, saber swinging and fire in his veins, as the Darkside sings for them.

\------------

Obi-wan peals himself away from the wall. Qui-gon and Anakin are engrossed in their duel, totally unaware of Obi-wan’s presence. He slinks away, letting them fight, and jogs down the hall towards an elevator. Getting into one is a risk, especially without a lightsaber to use as an escape route if someone locks it down, but it is the fastest way to the escape pods.

The elevator slides open, revealing a scene straight out of Obi-wan’s nightmares. What was once Ventress’s body is now splayed across the elevator in a sickening display. Her limbs were crushed and cut off. Her torso had been flayed and her teeth pulled out and scattered. Someone had torn open her chest, breaking her ribs apart and exposing her heart and lungs. Her eyes had been gouged out and placed in the palms of her severed hands.

Obi-wan backs frantically away and tries to stop himself from throwing up. He has seen horrors. He has seen bodies torn apart by bombs and soldiers screaming as they burned alive. He has experienced all manner of death and depravity. But this is different. This isn’t the action of an enemy or the sadistic stranger. This is Qui-gon. This is what Qui-gon has become.

Obi-wan winces as a bone-chilling shriek echoes through the ship. He feels briefly like his body is being flipped inside out as their ship is forcibly torn out of hyperspace. His atoms protest the alteration, the unnatural horror of being ripped from one existence to the next without caution.

His body rights itself and Obi-wan runs as cannon fire beings to bombard the starship. He’s too deep inside the ship to feel the impacts, but the distant rain of lasers bolts has woken him too many times in the night to ever mistake that sound for anything else.

He encounters the first boarding party halfway to the escape pods. It’s merely a scouting party, one that he sweeps aside with a wave of the Force, but he’s more careful as he moves forward, diving down hallways or jumping into vents when more boarding parties approach. He can’t shake the feeling that he’s being herded into a trap. More and more of his escape routes are being cut off. The choice of which hallways to go down suddenly is no longer a choice as every hallway is now filled with clones except one.

The trap is obvious now to a man who knows the clones’ tactics. The clones always left what looked like a hole in their search patterns in order to draw out anyone caught in the net. It’s already too late. Going back will only be met with squads of clones from all sides. The question is if he wants to throw himself at Vader’s troops or the invader’s.

The thought of falling back into Vader’s hands is frightening, but not nearly as frightening as falling into Qui-gon’s hands. A third party could be better, or it could be infinitely worse, but Obi-wan’s policy has always been to spring the trap. He won’t change that now.

Obi-wan comes to the final juncture of the clones’ trap. Several dozen blasters raise and power up. In that moment, he hears the echoes of so many similar traps in the past, of so many Jedi suddenly finding themselves on the wrong end of a blaster that once belonged to their allies. This is what was done to the Jedi deemed to weak to be worth turning, to Jedi that refused to align with Qui-gon or Vader. This is what was done to the children, the one’s that could have grown up to become enemies but were still only children. This was the end of the Jedi.

Obi-wan stands in the trap, waiting to see if these clones will try to take his life as they did to so many of his brothers and sisters. Silence falls around them, then the clones part to allow their leader through.

It is Cody who steps forward, dressed clone armor made of beskar. He is a carefully controlled storm, perfectly capable of killing, but only doing so when it benefits him. This is Cody, in control, professional, and willing to cross any line to get exactly what he wants. And right now, his attention is on Obi-wan.

Obi-wan resists the urge to step back as Cody steps up to him. His blank helmet gives nothing away. “I’ll give you a choice,” Cody’s metallic voice says. “Serve with the clones, be our weapon. We’ll protect you from Vader and Jinn.”

“And the second option?”

“We hand you over to Vader and Jinn.”

Obi-wan swallows as he considers what staying would mean for him. The horrific scenarios his imagination conjures up terrify him, but to give away his freedom to escape torment isn’t truly a choice. “Do you know what they’ll do to me?” Obi-wan asks, trying to make Cody understand the choice he’s been given.

“They’d rape you,” Cody says simply. “Repeatedly and without mercy.”

“Not much of a choice, is it?” 

“It’s more than we ever got.”

Obi-wan sighs. “Then let’s go.”

The slap Cody gives him is so surprising Obi-wan doesn’t even move to defend him himself. “You’re not in charge here,” Cody says. “You don’t give orders, you take them. Got that?”

Obi-wan touches his stinging cheek, unable to keep the betrayed expression off his face. Obi-wan nods slowly, but Cody’s rage doesn’t relent. “Yes, sir,” Obi-wan says. He senses Cody smiling.

Then Cody holds out a metallic Force inhibiting collar. “Put it on,” Cody says.

Obi-wan hesitantly takes it from him and ducks his head so he can close it around his own neck. It doesn’t activate as he expected. Instead, it sits quietly on his collarbones, waiting.

“Consider it insurance,” Cody says. “Jedi need to be controlled.”

Obi-wan touches the collar, knowing he could remove it, but leaving it in place. Cody considers it a part of their contract. Right now, it’s either Cody or the Sith. And he can’t choose the Sith.

\-----------

The red and orange glow of Ahsoka’s sabers fill the cabin of their little ship as she prepares to fight Luminara. The older woman had refused to give up her own saber, not trusting Ahsoka at all, but had tried to make Ahsoka see her point of view. Ahsoka had understood, but she didn’t care. Her life is at risk. Luminara’s meant nothing to her.

“Please, Ahsoka, stop,” Barriss says. She knows Vader’s programming is pulling at Ahsoka, heightening her rage and suspicion, but that knowledge doesn’t change that fact that Ahsoka is willing to kill them both without a second thought. Luminara will only escalate the situation that’s already spiraling out of control.

“I told you my conditions,” Ahsoka says.

“I know, but please, this is delicate. We all want out, we just need to get along long enough to get to the nearest space station, then we can go our separate ways,” Barriss says.

“I won’t leave myself defenseless in the presence of Vader’s pet,” Luminara spits.

“Please, Ahsoka, I just want to talk. Luminara can stay in the cockpit,” Barriss says. “Vader’s been manipulating you for years. Please, you need to listen.”

“I don’t need to listen to anyone,” Ahsoka says.

“So be it,” Luminara says and swings at her.

Their blades crash and Barriss dives out of the way. Ahsoka is flung backwards into the cockpit. Her saber slices through the dashboard, causing the ship to drop out of hyperspace. Ahsoka growls and is about to return the assault when Luminara collapses.

Barriss removes the vibroblade from Luminara’s back as she steps over her body. Ahsoka stares at her.

“You’re worth more to me than her,” Barriss says and holds the blade out of Ahsoka. “I promise you. This isn’t a trick or a lie. I want to help you, but I won’t force you to accept my help. Please, just give me a chance.”

Ahsoka’s gaze softens. “You killed her for me,” she says.

“Yes,” Barriss says, wishing that Ahsoka’s association between killing and loving wasn’t so strong, but accepts that for Ahsoka was a result of growing up at war. It’s the same association Barriss has been trying to train out of herself without success.

Ahsoka smiles slightly and disengages her sabers. “Let’s talk.”


	11. Taking

“The war will never end,” Barriss says. “The Sith will never stop killing each other. It’s in our nature. But we don’t have to be Sith anymore. We can choose another path.”

“We chose the Darkside,” Ahsoka says. “I don’t want to turn away from it.”

“Aren’t you tired of it? Aren’t you tired of the war and the violence and the unending misery of it all? I’m tired Ahsoka. I can’t do this anymore. I know the darkness is eating at you and maybe it hasn’t torn you apart yet, but it will.”

“You’re afraid for me,” Ahsoka says. Her face contorts as she tries to decide how to process that. The Sith would say to use it for the weakness that it is. The Jedi would say to not allow such unhealthy attachment to continue. She can’t quite decide how to

“You could be whatever you want to be. I don’t think you want to be Vader’s enforcer for the rest of your life.”

“He’s my Master.”

“And one day, you have to let go of your master and forge your own path. What do you want for yourself? Not what Vader wants from you, not what you think is expected. What do you want, Ahsoka?”

Ahsoka frowns. She looks down at the scars on her hands. She watches as her fingers bend and the pale tissue stretches. Her lekku twitch. “I don’t know.”

“Then why don’t we take sometime away from everything so that you can figure it out? I support whatever choice you make. I just want you to have the chance to make that choice.”

Ahsoka’s golden eyes fade to yellow. “I don’t think I can.”

Barriss reaches out to her, but the ship abruptly jerks.

“Tractor beam,” Ahsoka says, leaping to her feet and rushing into the cockpit. Her lightsaber strike had disabled the monitoring systems, defenses, and much of the navigation. They would have been warned earlier otherwise.

Barriss twists to look out the window and freezes. “It’s the clones,” she says. Disappointment cuts deep into her soul. They were so close to being free. And now it’s all over.

\------------

Obi-wan allows Cody to lead him into one of the troop transports as the troops pull out of Anakin’s ship. As unlikely as it may be, it seems the only reason for physically boarding the ship was to retrieve him. They’ve picked up a few defectors, including Rex, who fall easily into sync with the troops as the jog. Obi-wan finds himself assimilating into their movements, not wanting to disturb the natural flow of the clones. He has to keep reminding himself that these are not the men he knows.

“You were supposed to get him out for us,” Cody growls to Rex as they board the transport.

“The sedative wore off too quickly,” Rex says. “Then Jinn showed up and slaughtered my men. This was a stupid risk. We don’t need him.”

“Would you rather I have grabbed a Sith?”

Rex turns away. “Point taken,” he says, but the weight of death still clings to him. That is surprisingly comforting to Obi-wan because it means Rex still cares, still has a heart, even if it’s heavily armored.

“Good.” Cody, on the other hand, seems to have given up on caring. The death of Rex’s men doesn’t alter his emotional state.

Obi-wan takes hold of the hanging straps as the gunship takes off. He senses the unease of the troops around him. He shivers as the ship passes into space. The thin garb he’d woken up in had suited him well on the large, heated cruiser, but gunships are far less insulated. The floor rapidly cools his bare feet, but he says nothing.

“Sir,” one of the clones says over the comm. “We’ve got a possible Sith ship on radar. They aren’t responding to us.”

“Tractor them in,” Cody says. “Could be a dead ship. The engineers would appreciate the chance to examine it.”

“We’ve got life signs.”

“Gas them and see if they’re worth anything. You know the drill.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

Obi-wan sways easily with the ship as it twists into a new hanger. He checks himself from walking out first as his rank had demanded he do before. Now, he follows after Cody. He misses his Cody, his commander and friend. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever get back home or if it’s even possible. Cross-dimensional travel had never been documented before. He doesn’t have the science background to try and find a way back. All he can do is ask the Force to let him return home.

Cody shoves him down into a chair once they reach Cody’s office. Cody sits down on the other side of his desk and removes his helmet. The scar is the same. The eyes are not. Both have been replaced with mechanical implants, though there is no scarring around the eyes to explain what happened.

Cody leans back and considers him. “You were supposed to be my general, but the Jedi should never have been in command to begin with. At best, you are tools that need to be carefully controlled and monitored. At worst, you are rogue agents incapable of controlling your own power. The Jedi should have been fully integrated into the military and trained to obey orders properly.”

It is not rage that boils up in his heart at the notion that Jedi are meant to be enslaved. It is sadness. He mourns that Cody has no understanding of Jedi culture and what it means to be a Jedi. He mourns the loss of his people. He mourns what many of them have become. He will cry for them, for all that has been lost, for all that was destroyed, but not here.

Here, he is General Kenobi facing a superior officer. Here, he will be what Cody wants, but only to a point. He will not compromise his values to save his own life. He will be the soldier Cody wants, but he refuses to be a slave.

He says nothing in response to Cody’s declaration, instead taking Cody’s viewpoint and factoring it into his understanding of the man and how Obi-wan will have to act to ensure his own survival.

“We’ll see if you’re worth the effort it took to get you here,” Cody says.

“You should know that I won’t do anything against the Jedi Code,” Obi-wan says.

“You’ll do what I say,” Cody says. “Or I deliver you to the Sith with a bow on your head.”

Obi-wan doesn’t flinch at the threat. He stares back at Cody, meeting his intense gaze. “I will not break the Code.”

“Then you’ll face the consequences.”

“General Cody?” someone says over the comm. “We’ve got that ship in. It’s Vader’s Sith, Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee, and the body of Luminara Unduli, one of Jinn’s.”

“Kill them,” Cody says.

“Wait, please, spare them,” Obi-wan says. Cody scowls and mutes the comm. Obi-wan accepts the slap Cody inflicts on him.

“You’re not in command,” Cody barks.

“Please, Ahsoka is, was, the Ahsoka I know is like a daughter to me.”

“This isn’t your Ahsoka.”

“I know, but please. I think I can talk to her and Barriss and get them away from Vader.”

Cody hums thoughtfully. “Consider them another form of insurance. If you exceed expectations, I’ll let you see them.”

“Thank you, sir,” Obi-wan says, knowing he’s pushed his luck and only given Cody more leverage over him.

“But there will be a punishment for questioning my orders. Three mile run in full armor and twenty four hours without the Force. Why don’t you get suited up?"


	12. Losing

Ahsoka screams as she throws herself against the ray shield at the entrance to their cell. She needs to be free. The Darkside thrashes within her, demanding an outlet.

She leaps for the ray shield again, but Barriss lays on a hand on her shoulder, holding her back. Barriss silently pleads with her to stop burning herself. It isn’t doing them any good.

Ahsoka growls, shrugs Barriss’s hand off, and prowls around the cell the two of them are sharing a cell after being sedated by an injection of gas into the atmosphere of their ship. It was a cheap shot. They should have the gall to face her in battle.

The clones had stolen their lightsabers and armor and locked them in a secure cell with Force inhibitors around their necks. Their guards are heavily armed and safe behind the hated ray shield.

Barriss doesn’t approach her, instead giving her as much space as possible. She knows Ahsoka hates confinement. Ahsoka appreciates the effort, but now isn’t the time to worry about Ahsoka’s feelings. It’s time for escape, for action, for violence.

She briefly entertains the thought of shoving her arm through the ray shield until the skin burns away and she is able to strangle the clones with her bones on their skin.

“They know how to hold Sith,” Barriss says softly. “There’s no point in wasting energy trying to escape.”

“Would you rather I do nothing?” Ahsoka snaps.

“I’d rather talk.”

“And give them information? I would rather die.”

“They already know that, Ahsoka. Ask yourself why we aren’t dead.”

Ahsoka stops pacing and allows her anger to crystalize into focus. They should be dead. Of course, Barriss would realize that. Of the two of them, Barriss had always been more calculating while Ahsoka had been the skilled fighter. It’s part of what made them a good team. The clones would know that. They should never have left them together, let alone alive. They’ve made their policy on Sith prisoners quite clear in the past by immediately executing any Sith they ever took into custody.

“Public execution?” Ahsoka offers, though that isn’t consistent with the clones’ past behavior. She’ll play down her own intelligence when in captivity. Combined with ingrained human bias against Togruta, they’ll be more likely to underestimate her and believe her to be more animal than sentient.

“No,” Barriss says. “I think we’re bargaining chips.”

That fits with previous clone behavior, though Ahsoka can’t think of what negotiations are going on that would warrant taking bargaining chips. “Prisoner exchange?” Ahsoka asks, knowing full well that Vader executed most of the clones they captured and tortured the rest to insanity. There are no prisoners to exchange unless Vader recently picked up some high ranking clones.

“I don’t know,” Barriss says. The older woman is sitting in the corner looking smaller and more exhausted than Ahsoka has ever seen her. Ahsoka hesitantly joins her even as her mind screams for her to cling to her anger and hold it against Barriss.

“I’m angry with you,” Ahsoka says, needing for Barriss to understand that they can’t be what they were before. Barriss has broken her trust and taken her unwillingly from her life.

“I know,” Barriss says. “But I’m not sorry for what I did to get you away from him.”

“I know it bothers you when he hurts me, but I told you I was fine with it. He was making me a better Sith.”

Barriss closes her eyes. She looks terribly sad as she wraps her arms around herself. “Do you want to be a Sith?”

“It’s what I am,” Ahsoka says. A Sith is as much a part of her as being sentient is. It isn’t something she can choose. It’s far too ingrained in her nature now.

“It doesn’t have to be.”

Ahsoka’s head aches as Barriss’s words bounce around in it. She’s wrong. The Sith are all that there is now. All that there will ever be. She is a Sith. She has Fallen. The Darkside will never let her go.

\---------

Vader kneels deep in meditation as the ship explodes around them. Bombs go off, but Vader holds them back. The Force bends to his will with frightening ease, containing chemical reactions and holding the atmosphere of the ship in place. Even behind closed eyelids, Qui-gon can see the golden glow of Vader’s eyes as the Darkside rushes through him.

He had never seen Vader flex his power like this. All these years of believing Anakin to be the Chosen One and he had never truly comprehended the power Anakin has. With the Darkside on his side, Vader is nearly invincible.

And he has never been more vulnerable than he is right now.

Qui-gon itches to ignite his saber and kill him. It would be better for everyone in the long run, but Qui-gon is not one to consider the good of all. He is a Sith. Selfishness is part of their creed. Right now, he wants Obi-wan back and a chance to steal Vader’s empire from him. That means allowing Vader to save their lives.

Qui-gon thumbs the saber on his belt. He wants his own saber back, but Ventress’s saber fits surprisingly well in his hand. It embraces his ferocity after having spent far longer in darkness than the crystal of his own saber. Perhaps Vader could send someone to retrieve it from Kilata along with Obi-wan’s lightsaber now that they’re supposedly allies.

In the meantime, he needs to plan. Dooku is still out there. He won’t come to Qui-gon’s aid, but he’ll certainly marshal their forces. Dooku is a brilliant commander. He’ll probably restart the fighting between his small droid army and Vader’s far larger droid army. Both sides had turned to the droids after a large number of clones deserted. Qui-gon had shied from open warfare, letting his Sith go into hiding, but skirmishes popped up every few weeks.

However, this attack has damaged Vader’s forces. Dooku would be a fool to let the opportunity slide. He’ll handle the military activities while Qui-gon infiltrates Vader’s empire. Once he does, it will be simple to transfer power into his hands. All he has to do is occupy Vader’s attention with the hunt for Obi-wan and his empire will be left vulnerable.

Qui-gon smiles as he senses a few ships drop out of hyperspace. It seems that rescue is here.

\---------

The datapad Cody had given him contains his duty schedule and what is expected of him during his time here. Nearly every moment of his day is accounted for between training and drills and ship-board maintenance duties. The goal seems to be humiliating him, but physical labor isn’t the demeaning activity the clones think it will be for him. Obi-wan has spent his whole life believing that his purpose was to serve the galaxy. He never believed himself better than anyone. The clones have completely misconstrued the fundamental nature of what it is to be a Jedi.

He had read through most of the datapad after he finished his run. The armor he’d run in hadn’t fit right, which left him with bruises and chafing and pinched skin. The quartermaster had reluctantly agreed to tailor it properly since Cody had required he wear it into battle. According to Cody, too much time had been invested in him to be wasted if someone got in a lucky shot.

Now, he sits on his bunk, trying and failing to meditate. His bunk is the top one right next to the door, which is constantly opening and closing as the men prepare for bed. The sergeant occasionally pops in to yell at them to hurry up, but the routine of the soldiers is so set there isn’t a need for his reminders. It seems the sergeant himself has a routine that includes yelling at the soldiers.

Obi-wan shifts under his blanket and gives up on meditating. He needs to sleep, but too much is running through his head. He needs to protect Ahsoka. He needs to keep clear of Anakin and Qui-gon. He needs to find a way home. The first two are taken care of if he does as Cody says. The last will require more work. He wonders at the extent of the onboard library. Holonet-terminal access is restricted to off-duty hours, which he finds are sorely lacking in his schedule.

Obi-wan closes his eyes as the lights go out and the barracks almost immediately fall silent. He has to curl onto his side to sleep so that there won’t be a crick in his neck from the collar in the morning.

He hears the near silent shuffle of bare feet on metal floors moments before hands yank him from his bunk. He could fight them, but fighting hasn’t done him any good. He’s a skilled warrior. He could kick up enough of a fuss for them to decide he isn’t worth the trouble, but they’ll come back. They always come back. They’ll keep chipping at his defenses until he's too tired to fight back. Better to let them have their fun now.


	13. Slipping

Obi-wan wakes up with his cheek pressed into the hard metal floor of the barracks. His body feels like it has been crushed by a rancor. His ribs shift beneath his skin as he slowly pushes himself to his feet. Morning will come soon, and the clones will wake up. He doesn’t want to be on the floor when that happens.

Obi-wan’s ankle protests as he puts weight on it. He winces, then reaches for his armor. The armor will help to brace the broken bones.

The rules state that all injuries must be reported to the medics. His gut twists at the idea of leaving himself vulnerable to another group of clones. They’ll ask what happened and he’s certain he’ll end up taking the blame for it somehow. Afterall, who would believe his word over a clone’s?

Obi-wan wants desperately to use the Force to hold the bones in place and ease the pain. Cody will turn off the collar in a few hours. He dreads how long those hours will be.

He pulls on his helmet, so the others won’t hear him scream. He stills, holding himself awkwardly as he waits for the pain to pass.

The lights slowly brighten after a few minutes. The clones awaken and begin to get dressed. A few give him odd looks for already being fully dressed. Others see the pool of blood on the floor and look to him again. “Nosebleed,” Obi-wan says and they stop glancing at him.

Obi-wan falls into line with his assigned squad as they march from the barracks. He has to use the Force to keep from limping. He attempts to quell the swelling from his black eyes. He isn’t entirely successful and has to use the Force to supplement his vision.

The sergeant is ordering them to do something. Obi-wan tries to focus. He isn’t entirely successful. Every step sends shocks of pain through his body, though the armor helps to keep his bones in place.

The sergeant hands him a bucket and a brush. It seems he’s been assigned cleaning, despite the fact that droids are far more efficient at cleaning, though they are more expensive.

His knees hit the floor. He lets himself fall into a light meditation as he cleans. He may not be able to channel the Force, but it still flows through him. It will still help him heal.

\-----------

The two Sith are now sitting quietly in their cell. Tano has finally stopped trying to kill herself with the ray shield. Cody had been wondering if he would have to send in someone to sedate her. She’s no good to him dead, but the other one seems to have calmed her sufficiently.

Cody leans back in his office chair, watching the security hologram of the two Sith in front of him. He trusts his men with his life, but he isn’t foolish enough to underestimate the Sith. They’ve killed so many of his brothers. He won’t give them the chance to run.

Cody’s comm beeps as a timer goes off. It seems Kenobi’s time is up. He sends out a quick summons, then returns to examining the footage. It’s unlikely either Sith will reveal any intel, but they’re bound to get bored eventually. And when two people get bored, they start to talk.

The door rings. “Enter,” Cody says.

Kenobi enters, fully armored, but something isn’t right. He’s lacking the usual grace that’s always present in his gait. It could be that he isn’t used to wearing armor, but even nat-borns don’t wear armor so poorly.

“Take off your helmet,” Cody says.

Kenobi hesitates, but obeys. As he takes his helmet off, he reveals two black eyes and a broken nose. Cody scowls. Kenobi should know better than to try to hide injuries. “I just need the Force. Then I can heal myself,” Kenobi says quietly.

“You know the rules,” Cody says.

“For major injuries,” Kenobi says. “These are minor.”

“Minor,” Cody says, unimpressed. He wouldn’t tolerate this behavior from anyone, much less someone who requires far more resources than he seems to be worth. He can’t give Kenobi the chance to run off. “I’ve summoned a medic. Sit down and take off your armor.”

Kenobi hesitantly sits down on the edge of a chair. He looks like he wants to ask something but seems to decide otherwise. He starts to remove his armor with startling efficiency. It seems this isn’t his first time wearing armor. Interesting.

Kix arrives a few moments later with a stony expression. He doesn’t tolerate hidden injuries any more than Cody does.

He looks over Kenobi, then roughly pulls Kenobi’s shirt over his head, revealing a sprawling mass of bruises. Kix is probably unnecessarily rough, but Cody doesn’t step in. Kenobi needs to learn, though pain doesn’t seem to a sufficient motivator for him.

Cody starts to pull up the security footage from the barracks. He doubts Kenobi will admit to fighting after refusing to get medical help.

“This isn’t a big deal, Cody. If you just turn off the collar, I can heal myself in a few hours,” Kenobi says, interrupting his search.

Cody looks to Kix. Kix shrugs. Neither of them had Jedi that had much of a talent for healing, but Kenobi’s finished his punishment, so Cody shuts off the collar.

Kenobi’s body relaxes as the glow of the collar fades. Already he looks better, his skin less pale, the bruises less dark. Kenobi’s eyes flicker close and he places his hands on his chest. Kix watches with something akin to horror as the ribs visibly move back into place.

“Pain meds?” Kix offers.

“No need,” Kenobi says.

Cody’s eyes narrow. Jedi aren’t to be trusted, even when they’re injured. That’s when they’re at their most deceptive. Kenobi could just be trying to gain their pity and trick them into trusting him.

He grabs Kenobi’s chin, forcing him to look into Cody’s eyes. “You still broke a rule,” Cody says.

“Technically—” Kenobi starts, but Cody tightens his grip, digging his nails in.

“Technically, you broke the rules. And hiding injuries is another form of insubordination.” Kenobi swallows, but doesn’t try to pull away from Cody’s bruising grip.

Kix abruptly sets a hand on his shoulder. “He’s not fit for corporal punishment,” he says.

Cody scowls. “Isolation then. Three days.”

“And the others he fought with?” Kix asks.

The two men look to Kenobi, but he offers no names. Cody flips on the security recording from the barracks he had searched for earlier. He watches as six of men yank Kenobi off his bunk and attack him without provocation. Kenobi doesn’t fight back. He takes the beating, only deflecting some of the blows when they stray too close to vital organs.

“You have security cameras in the barracks?” Kenobi asks. His expressions flicks between alarmed then to overwhelming relief.

“You didn’t think we’d believe you,” Kix says. The medic’s empathy helps him put the pieces together before Cody realizes what’s going on.

“Who’d believe a Jedi over their own brother?” Kenobi asks. His voice is flat, not blaming them, merely acknowledging a fact.

“Talk to their sergeants, Kix. I’ll deal with Kenobi,” Cody says. He tries to ignore the little twinge of guilt. Obi-wan feared the greater punishment of fighting, instead choosing to hide his injuries. It doesn’t sit right with Cody. “Come on,” Cody says. Perhaps three days is cruel, but he’s already decided on the punishment. He can’t go back on it, even if the circumstances aren’t what he thought. Kenobi will still have the Force. He’ll be fine.

He treks down to the lower levels of the ship. There are others down here, confined for various crimes or as punishment for breaking the rules.

Cody opens one of the unoccupied cells and points Kenobi inside. The Jedi does as he’s told, even letting Cody manacle one of his ankles with a short chain to the wall. He hands Kenobi a datapad full of strategy and how to integrate Jedi strategy with the clone strategy.

“Read and study it,” Cody says. “I want you in the field soon.” 

Kenobi looks at him with something frighteningly close to sadness in his eyes. Cody crushes the growing bloom of pity in his heart before it can influence him. He can’t let Kenobi distract him.

\-----------

Ahsoka pokes at the gigantic slab of meat the clones have given her to eat. It’s cooked and seasoned to perfection. It seems some of the 501st traitors remember her favorite food. She glares at it, wanting to throw it away but too hungry to do so. Barriss is already eating her own food, a traditional Mirialan dish that her former clones must have remembered. Ahsoka doesn’t trust it.

She glares at the security cameras, then starts tearing into the meat with as much viciousness as she can manage. Blood dribbles down her chin. She takes her sharpened teeth to the meat and starts shredding it.

Ahsoka catches Barriss staring at her with alarm. Good. No doubt the clones will be even more afraid.

“You can let up with the freaky eating,” a clone says as he stops in front of their cell, safely behind the ray shield. It’s Rex, fully armored and no longer part of Anakin’s army. He’s betrayed them. “We’ve all seen worse.”

Ahsoka growls and rips off another bite as her rage bursts forth. “Just wait till I get out of here,” she says.

Rex looks unimpressed, but he’s used to her theatrics. The others clones aren’t if the twitches of Rex’s companions indicate anything. “What do you want from us?” Barriss asks. 

“You’ll be staying here for now,” Rex says. “Jedi Kenobi made a deal for your lives.”

“Why would he do that?” Barriss asks. “How did you get him here?”

Rex shrugs. “We were going to blast you into space dust, but he said he would fight for us willingly in exchange for your safety.”

“That’s ridiculous. I left him for Vader.”

“And we took him from Vader,” Rex says. “We offered him safety in exchange for his help.”

“You’re just using him,” Ahsoka says. “Vader would have set him free. But you took that away from him. You took that away from me.”

“Ahsoka,” Rex says. “I never wanted to hurt you.”

Ahsoka slams her body into the ray shield. “You betrayed us! How could you do this?”

“You were my friend,” Rex says. “But you betrayed the clones. You betrayed all of us when you joined Vader.”

Ahsoka shrieks and throws herself at the ray shield again. How dare he pretend to be the victim! Rex is just another traitor, running from the cause he had sworn his life to. Vader had given him everything, just as he had done for her. “You’re a monster!”

Barriss grabs her arm. “He made a choice. He has the right to leave Vader. The clones can choose a different life. Is that so wrong?”

Ahsoka stops fighting her. She wants desperately to take revenge. Barriss has a point, but Rex could have chosen any other life. Why did he have to choose the life that would betray them?


	14. Learning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was considering making this a miserable story of tragedy and despair, but things seem to be moving in a more positive direction. Hmm......

Obi-wan calls upon the Force and tries to heal himself, but the Force is so dark and distorted here that it grates against his nerves as it runs through him. It runs like fire through his veins as he tries to return his body to some semblance of wellness. His bones ache as he lays flat on the floor of his cell. There’s only just enough space for him to lay down with his arms outstretched. The chain around his ankle seems unnecessary, especially since the door is locked, but he understands why. The clones fear him. They hide that fear behind cruelty because they know no other way to express it.

They fear Cody, for the power he holds and what he could do to them as their leader, but they respect him. They trust him to always act in their collective best interest. Obi-wan hasn’t earned that. He doubts he ever will.

His body spasms violently as another wave of agony crashes through him. He bites his lip to keep quiet before deciding that there is no need. No one will hear him. He screams with the next wave of agony as the darkness in the Force seeps into his bones and electrifies his nerves. There is so much darkness, so much pain, it sweeps through the Force like a storm, unstable and unstoppable.

Obi-wan releases his hold on the Force, instead allowing it to carry him. The raging storm pulls him along, no longer hurting him as he accepts it. He accepts the pain and the torment inflicted on this galaxy. He accepts it for what it is and allows it to shape him as it needs. Slowly, the storm eases. The waves still.

He floats in a pool of deep water, calm and relaxed as the Force takes hold of him. He untwists the knots and heals where the Sith have torn it apart. He breaks the chains the Sith have placed on it.

Obi-wan surfaces from his meditation exhausted but healed. He smiles in the dim light of his cell. The Force whirls around him, affectionate and kind. It whispers of the role he must play, of his mission here. He accepts all that it asks of him. He is a Jedi, an instrument of the Force. He would choose no other life.

\---------

Cody sends a reply to Yargo’s distress call, letting them know that reinforcements are on the way. He scowls when he sees the numbers of the battle. The droids overwhelm them by the thousands. Even with his own troops, the battle would be difficult. All he could hope to do was evacuate the clones that are there. Unless Kenobi can be of some use.

He leans back in his chair. He had only just sent Kenobi into isolation. It would undermine the punishment to pull him out now, but his people are more important.

He opens his locked desk drawer and removes some of the lightsabers he had stored there. Most are corrupted and stolen from their Sith users. Some belonged to Jedi that were killed. He takes the uncorrupted ones. Jedi are supposed to be attuned to their sabers. He doesn’t have a lot of options for Kenobi to choose from.

“Bring us to Yargo and prepare for attack,” Cody says into his comm before making his way down to the lower levels. He kicks open the door to Kenobi’s cell. The Jedi is floating in the center of his cell meditating. It has only been a few hours and already his injuries have healed. It seems he was right about his healing abilities.

“Kenobi,” Cody says. “Have you read the datapad?”

“I have. Though I have some notes that would help to better mesh our abilities,” Kenobi says.

Cody scowls.

“My lightsaber style is more defensive than your previous Jedi’s was. I can try to imitate their abilities to better fit your expectations, but I won’t be nearly as effective as I could be. I know the 212th. I was their general for three years in some of the Republic’s greatest victories and with some of the lowest casualties in the army. I know how to lead. I know how to follow orders. I can work with you.”

Cody glares, not appreciating Kenobi’s input or tone, but he has to put his men first, even if it means accepting that Kenobi might not be as incompetent as Cody’s previous generals. “You can mesh with our tactics?”

“I can,” Kenobi says. “Please, give me a chance.”

Cody eyes him. Kenobi’s right, though Cody doesn’t want to admit it. He needs Kenobi and despite all that’s been done to him, he’s still offering to help. It could be a trap, just another manipulation before eventual betrayal.

“Fine,” Cody says and holds out his bag of lightsabers. Kenobi winces, but reaches into the bag and selects one. The saber lights up a deep blue. It flicks downwards, cutting easily through the chain on Kenobi’s ankle without even grazing the skin.

Chills run up Cody’s spine at the skillful display. He can’t fight a Jedi. No vod alone can fight a Jedi. He’s never been more aware of that than he is right now. Kenobi could take revenge. He could cut Cody down and pull the vode back under his spell. They would follow him. They would believe in the Jedi because they want to, because it is what they are programmed to do. Cody has to fight against his programming every step of the way. Hatred keeps his vision clear. It’s the only way to stay free.

Kenobi hooks his saber to his belt and pulls on his helmet. “I will defend your people,” Kenobi says. “You have my word.”

Cody wants to ask what the word of a Jedi could possibly be worth, but he doesn’t. He needs Kenobi to fight this battle for him. The threat of returning him to Vader and Qui-gon could very easily work against Cody if Kenobi decides Cody isn’t worth it. He won’t fight with all his power, only enough to stay alive. Cody can’t afford that. Not right now.

“Fine,” Cody says. “But one wrong move…” Cody steps into Kenobi’s space. The Jedi’s cool eyes meet his own. “One wrong move and I will skin you alive.”

“Understood, General,” Kenobi says.

\---------

A metal door closes behind the ray shield, sealing them off from the rest of the ship. The closing door means the clones are preparing for battle. Barriss wipes the water from her face and tosses the towel aside. There is nothing she can do, so she doesn’t bother worrying about. Either the Sith will be attacking the ship and know that she and Ahsoka are here and will rescue Ahsoka or they don’t know and won’t try to rescue her. Regardless, it won’t end well for Barriss if the Sith board the ship.

Barriss sits down on the bench next to Ahsoka’s sleeping form. She would like to curl beside her, but Ahsoka never reacted well to someone interrupting her sleep. The same is true for Barriss. Both women had made that mistake back when they were still figuring things out.

Barriss leans back and pulls a blanket over her shoulders. She wants to talk to Ahsoka, but it is far too easy to give up intel when conversing. She wouldn’t mind giving up intel on Vader, but Ahsoka would have a problem with it. She’s still loyal to Vader and would completely shut down if she let something slip.

The ship rumbles into hyperspace. She wonders who’s under attack. There are a dozen different campaigns underway. Most of them are dealing with those still opposing the Empire. A few more are assigned with hunting down some of Qui-gon’s allies. Most of the missions involving the clones are undercover missions or intelligence gathering.

Perhaps Yargo. They had only just discovered the location of that clone colony. She wonders if she should inform them of the mole in their midst, the one who had given their location to Vader. It might earn her some mercy. Thought certainly not from Ahsoka.

“’Soka,” Barriss whispers. The Togruta’s brilliant eyes open.

“What’s going on?” she asks.

“They’re going into battle.”

Ahsoka sits up. Her fingers flick in a brief pattern, a covert signal for them to prepare for extraction or escape. This is their one chance to escape, but Barriss isn’t so sure. They’re leverage, which means the clones won’t kill or torture them. They’re as far from Vader as they’ll ever get. Ahsoka will have the chance to grow, to live without him playing with her mind.

Barriss signals back with a lie. She tells Ahsoka that she’s good to go, but to be cautious. She tries to hide the guilt and shame that bubbles up inside her. Ahsoka deserves so much better than this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I write short stories on Tumblr. Come say hello! https://ambiguousnights.tumblr.com/


	15. Attacking

Obi-wan stands in front of the refresher mirror and slowly cuts his hair and beard. Neither would fair well inside a helmet at their current length, but he refuses to remove his beard entirely. He trims it down, exposing more of his youthful face. It reminds him why he grew it in the first place.

Obi-wan cuts his hair until it vaguely resembles a standard crewcut. He’s not much of a hair stylist, but it’s not bad. He stares at his reflection and tamps down on the wave of sadness that rushes up. It’s just hair. It can grow back.

He wipes away the few tears the well up before they can fall. If nothing else, he can still be a Jedi. He can still maintain control of himself.

He hears someone come up behind him. Obi-wan turns around and finds Waxer. Waxer leads the 212th now with Cody overseeing the entire army. Cody had assigned Obi-wan to him for the main attack on Yargo.

Waxer eyes Obi-wan’s new haircut and nods a hesitant approval. “Geared up?” Waxer asks. Obi-wan nods and slips on his helmet. “Cody may not trust you, but we’re about to be dropped in a battlefield. I expect cooperation, but I also value the input of my subordinates. You see an opening, you tell me. Understood?”

“Sir, yes, sir,” Obi-wan says, falling back on the behavior of the clones he had served with. The clones had always been one of the most remarkable armies the galaxy had ever seen. Their training served them, for all that Obi-wan disagreed with how it was conducted. For now, he will be what they want him to be.

“Good. You’re with me,” Waxer says and marches down the hallway. Obi-wan falls into step behind him. A dozen other clones join them. They stand uncomfortably far away from Obi-wan until Waxer glares at them and tells them to get their heads out of their asses. It seems Waxer is willing to give Obi-wan the benefit of the doubt, though perhaps it has more to do with the necessity of trusting the men on the battlefield around you. No one could go onto a battlefield with allies they feared would stab them in the back. It made for distracted soldiers.

Obi-wan touches the lightsaber hanging at his hip. Cody had offered him a dozen lightsabers, all of them screaming out for their lost Jedi. Cody hadn’t realized what he had been doing. He didn’t know what it meant to keep lightsabers as trophies, tormenting the crystals inside them that desperately need the Jedi to heal them after their bond with their chosen wielder is shattered. He wonders if Cody would allow him to heal the kyber crystals later.

He senses the troopers’ eyes on him from all around the hangar bay as he boards the dropship. Most of them are still hostile, though a precious few seem to be reconsidering. It ignites a tiny flicker of hope inside Obi-wan, who hesitantly allows it to grow. 

The dropship shudders as it passes through the atmosphere. A dozen clones are clustered behind Obi-wan, choosing to squish together rather than brush shoulders with him. Waxer is standing in the center of the group, having already relayed their orders. They’re supposed to defend the town while another battalion provides evacuation.

Obi-wan checks the calibration on his HUD. He trusts the Force to guide him rather than the computer or even his own eyes, but it would be nice to have had more practice with it.

The Force flows through him and shows him the battlefield below. He senses the clones that live here. He senses a few clones on the enemy’s side. They must be using mostly battle droids. That eases his conscience. These are not sentients he will be destroying.

He closes his eyes and shores up his shields around his bonds with Anakin and Qui-gon. Neither are fully formed, but they will be, if Obi-wan doesn’t keep an eye on them. Both Sith are trying to push their way into his mind, but they aren’t getting far. Obi-wan is a Jedi Master. It is not a title earned by being lax in mental discipline and control.

The gunship doors open. Obi-wan leaps out onto the dusty planet. The sun is beating down on him as he ignites his saber and steps into the storm of laser bolts already being exchanged. Immediately, he blocks a dozen bolts flying towards his squad. He rushes forward, destroying the squad of droids in their path before they can fire another shot.

“There’s cover here,” Obi-wan says into the comm. The clones don’t hesitate to follow him. Their battle instincts work in Obi-wan’s favor. The squad ducks behind the rocks Obi-wan had cleared of droids.

“Incoming!” one of them yells. Obi-wan leaps into the air and uses his saber to bat the missile back into enemy space. He senses their eyes on him even as a dozen droids explode. He should warn them before doing something like that again. He would hate to be a distraction to them on the battlefield.

“We need to get behind them,” one says.

“Don’t bother. I’ll take care of it,” Obi-wan says. He leaps out from behind cover, lightsaber ignited as he charges towards the droids. They stand no chance against him. He is a Jedi. The Force is with him.

He snatches up one of the fallen clones and pulls them out of the line of fire. The medics stare at him with something verging on excitement despite the terror undermining their perception of him.

The Force pours through him, protecting him, protecting the clones. It rejoices in his light as he runs forward, cutting easily through the droids and finding the wounded the droids hadn’t finished off.

Unfortunately, the droids are starting to notice. More are zeroing in on him. With the increased number of B1s comes the super battle droids and the tanks. Then comes the droidekas.

Obi-wan falls back, ensuring that he draws the droids out into the open.

“How are you not dead?” Waxer asks.

“I’ve got the droids away from the settlement and into the open,” Obi-wan says.

“You’ve painted a gigantic target on our backs.”

“I’ve completed the mission,” Obi-wan says. “The general ordered that we make a distraction. Waxer!” Obi-wan yanks the other man down as another bolt whips through the air where his head used to be.

Waxer’s helmet snaps to Obi-wan. He is no longer oozing doubt and suspicion. “Do you have a plan, Kenobi?” Waxer asks.

“I can keep the droids distracted. They seem to be programmed to fixate on me. Half our forces can circle around behind them, the rest around the side. They open fire with everything they have and the droids are wiped out.”

“You’ll be killed,” Waxer says.

“It’s a risk, but I believe it would result in the least possible casualties.”

“I’m leaving some men to watch your back, but otherwise…” Waxer looks down, then turns to properly face Obi-wan. “It’s not a bad plan.”

Obi-wan smiles behind his helmet as the thrill of the battle rushes through his veins. For all that he was raised to be a peacekeeper, he cannot deny that he has a talent for war. He cannot deny the thrill of escaping death by millimeters and the power that rushes through him when he chooses to defend life. Perhaps he enjoys it too much, but the alternative is crushing despair. That is not an option.

“Ready when you are,” Obi-wan says.

Waxer hadn’t been happy to have Kenobi assigned to him, though he understood why. Of all Cody’s commanders, Waxer was the one least likely to stab Kenobi in the back or try to beat him into submission. Most of the other commanders have a very personal grudge against the Jedi that betrayed their battalion to the Sith. Waxer never had a Jedi. He has no singular person to focus on to keep his hate alive. He just wants his vode to be safe. He hadn’t thought Kenobi would be of much use.

He’s never been so wrong.

Waxer forces himself to look away from Kenobi as he tears through the battlefield with a ferocity that unnerves his men. All the Jedi the 212th had before were useless, not in any way equipped for the battlefield. But Kenobi is different.

“Eyes on the droids,” Waxer growls into the comms. He knows his brothers are being distracted. The only reason half of them aren’t dead is because Kenobi either deflected the bolts heading their way or killed the droids before they could get a shot off. “We’ve all seen Jedi before.”

A dozen helmets turn to him with disbelief before their discipline returns and they focus on the battlefield. They’ve circled easily around the droids, who are too focused on Kenobi to notice that they’re being surrounded.

“Open fire,” Waxer says. The men obey and the droids are mowed down. Kenobi leaps easily out of the way of the barrage. The battalion of droids is decimated within moments.

Kenobi drops to Waxer’s side a moment after the blaster fire stops. There are a few scorch marks on his armor, but otherwise he’s completely intact. Waxer shoves his awe aside. Maybe this Jedi is an exception to the rule, but Cody had warned him repeatedly of letting his guard down. And yet Waxer can’t help it. He’s seen the reports of what his brothers did to Kenobi and knows Kenobi didn’t fight back. He knows Kenobi is being hunted by Vader and Jinn in a galaxy unfamiliar to him. Empathy has always been his greatest weakness, according to his brothers. But Waxer refused to consider it a weakness.

“Nice job,” Waxer say and watches carefully for Kenobi’s reaction. He notices the change in Kenobi’s posture and the slight easing of tension in his shoulders. A positive reaction that Waxer wants to build on. Afterall, Kenobi would make an excellent ally. “Ready for round two?”


	16. Asking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter for this weekend

“Sir? We have a problem,” Fives says.

“What is it?” Cody asks. He’s standing in front of the 3D holosimulation of the battle on the planet below. It’s going surprisingly well. Cody only begrudgingly admits that may be because of Kenobi. According to Waxer, the man is the greatest tactical asset they’ve ever had. Cody is certain Waxer is exaggerating, caught up in the heat of battle as he is, but he cannot deny the results. It had been encouraging. And now Fives is here with an unusually stiff posture and a frown.

“The two Sith have been attempting to escape their cell. We sealed off the cell block after they got out of their cell. They’re contained, for now, but they’ve taken hostages.” 

“Can’t we just gas them?”

“They’ve plugged the air vents. We can’t control the atmosphere. They’ve also destroyed the cameras.”

Cody tries not to audibly sigh. He should have just killed them. “How many men?” he asks.

“Seven.”

“Where’s the tactical report?”

“Here. It says storming the block would likely result in dozens of casualties. Waiting them out is risky, but they’ve cut off their own atmosphere. They’ll run out of air eventually.”

“How long would that take?”

“Two weeks.”

“No,” Cody says. He dreads what they could do in two weeks to the men they are holding. It sickens him to think what the Sith might do to survive this. “They’ll come up with something else by then. Do we have an open line of communication?”

“They’re not answering any of the comms.”

“Any chance of getting our men out of there?”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Fives says.

“Then you have clearance to do whatever it takes.” 

A smile breaks across Fives’s face. Cody is reminded that he was once under Tano’s command and it was Tano’s orders that got him killed. This could get messy. “Try to leave at least one of them alive,” Cody says.

“No promises,” Fives says, flagrantly disrespectful as always, but he always follows through on Cody’s instructions. Cody trusts him to manage this as effectively as Fives manages everything else.

Cody turns back to the battle. He checks his notifications from his commanders. Rex is managing the space battle and reports that all is well. Ponds is managing the planetary assault and is reporting significant progress with the evacuation. Despite this, the tension in his shoulders doesn’t ease. The tide of a battle can turn in an instant. He’s seen many a Sith join a battle and drastically change an outcome. So far, no Sith has shown themselves. That’s doesn’t mean they’re not out there waiting to snatch victory out of his hands.

Cody keeps an eye on the locations of his most skilled Arc troopers as the search for possible Sith. They are the ones who will deal with the Sith should they find one. He wonders for a moment if calling in Kenobi could be useful but decides not to drag the Jedi out of the main battle unless a Sith actually shows their face.

He calms himself and turns back to the battle. Half the colony is already evacuated. If they maintain this pace, it’ll only be a few hours more before he can call for a retreat.

\-------------

“What’s the plan?” Barriss asks as they drag the clones into what used to be their cell. Ahsoka had managed to hotwire the door open after pulling a pin out of a bone that had one been broken. They hadn’t been able to get the Force inhibitor collars off, but that isn’t slowing down Ahsoka. The Togruta had decimated the monitoring equipment of the cell block and sealed off the exits, refusing to stop long enough for Barriss to tend to the hole Ahsoka had dug into her arm.

They’re safe, for now, but they have no where to go. The blast doors have fallen, cutting them off from the rest of the ship. She has no doubt the clones are waiting behind those doors. They’d be killed immediately if they tried to break through the lines.

Ahsoka grunts as she tosses the last hostage into the cell. She activates the ray shield and steps back. “The clones won’t negotiate for their own people,” Barriss says. “We’ve seen that before.”

“I know,” Ahsoka says. “But these aren’t the clones we know. These ones betrayed us. They only care about themselves.”

“I don’t see how that helps us.”

“It means they no longer have a duty to devote themselves to. They no longer have a cause to die for, which means they’ll be far less willing to sacrifice their brothers just to keep us here.”

“That seems unlikely. The clones have always shown an appreciation for the greater good.”

Ahsoka scowls. “What do they know of the greater good? All they’ve done since leaving Anakin is terrorize and rob planets.”

“I doubt they see it that way.”

“What does it matter? It doesn’t change what they’ve done.”

“It changes how we can react to what they’ve done.”

“Don’t go soft on me now,” Ahsoka says. “I need you.”

“I’m with you, Ahsoka. But we might be in over our heads this time. They weren’t hurting us. We could have been fairly safe here.”

“Look, Barriss, I know you don’t want to go back to war. I know you’re tired and sick of the violence and just want to go back to being a healer, but this war isn’t over and I’m not done fighting. Not yet. But once we get out of here, we can take break, okay? We can find a quiet planet to rest on, far from everything. I can go back to the war without you if you still don’t want to go, and then I can come back once everything is over.”

“It’ll never be over. You know that. The galaxy will not submit to tyranny for long.”

“No. Anakin says it’s only until Qui-gon is dead. Once he’s dead, everything will end.”

Barriss recognizes the slightly glazed look in Ahsoka’s eyes as she says this. Vader’s conditioning is still woven into her brain and will take years to undo. Challenging it would drive a rift between them Barriss doesn’t think she can heal. She steers clear of it for now. Once they’re safe, she can start pecking at it with the help of the Force. “Alright,” Barriss says. “But how do we get there?”

“We negotiate,” Ahsoka says with a frown as she fingers one of the comms she had taken off the guards. Negotiating had never been within their skill sets. Sith had no need for negotiating. Both of them still young at the time of the schism and hadn’t had time to fine tune the craft as Jedi. This will likely be far more difficult than Ahsoka thinks.

\------------

Qui-gon holds Obi-wan’s lightsaber in his hand. The crystal has grown silent in terror of him and Vader. Even without it’s voice, the crystal still has it’s uses. Lightsabers are bonded to their Jedi. It allows the Jedi to use the unwieldy weapons with ease. Sith, on the other hand, dominate their crystals and bleed them until they serve them. The Jedi have a far more symbiotic relationship, one which Vader has learned to exploit.

Hidden within the vast collection of Sith holocrons Vader had seized was a method for tracking Jedi using their lightsabers. It is nearly impossible and had fallen into legend in the past millenia, though the necessity of caring for one’s lightsaber still remained. Without the fledgling bonds he and Vader share with Obi-wan, the method would have fallen short of pinpointing Obi-wan, only pointing them vaguely in the right direction.

Qui-gon lights up Obi-wan’s saber. “Ready?” he asks Vader.

The younger Sith steps forward. “Ready.”

The crystal screams as Qui-gon and Vader brush against it. They find the faint bond it has with Obi-wan. It’s not a true bond, not like the ones between Force sensitives, but it is not blocked by Obi-wan’s shields. It will lead them straight to him.


	17. Talking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having a strangely productive writing week, so here's another chapter.

“Now!” Obi-wan yells and several dozen droid poppers go flying in the direction of the oncoming battalion of droids. He gives them a push with the Force to ensure they hit the targets, which are still out of throwing range. The clones are starting to run low on ammo, a problem they solve by snatching up the blasters of fallen B1s. It works well enough, though the update B1s now have the blaster sealed to their arms and are growing more numerous as the battle goes on.

Obi-wan had joined up with the jetpack troopers who usually dive bomb the droids but are currently serving as back up to Obi-wan’s incursions into the enemy lines. They’re the only ones who can keep up with him as he flies wildly between one massive spider droid and another. Unfortunately, such a tactic can’t be kept up for long. As the battle wore on, Obi-wan took a more defensive stance when it came to the smaller droids that the clones could easily deal with. He protected them, acting as a shield while the clones took down the droids.

The clones no longer look at him with distain. They trust him when he says he can help. Not all of them, but the some of the ones who he has fought with seem to be coming around.

Then something changes. The Force twists and creeps to a halt. Obi-wan struggles to keep moving through the syrup that seems to have surrounded him. The blaster fire falls silent. The dirt falling back to the ground lands softly, slowly, like a fine mist.

The Sith have arrived.

“Kenobi,” Waxer says, a slight edge of panic to his voice. “Can you handle them?”

Obi-wan snaps himself out of the abyss before it can pull him under. He senses a familiar, horrible rage running towards him, a smaller, less hurried rage just behind it. Quinlan and Aayla, Obi-wan realizes. It seems Vader has sent them here, though Obi-wan doesn’t think it’s connected to him. The unbridled rage pouring off Quinlan probably means Vader sent him here to take out his anger on the clones rather than loose control.

“I can hold them off,” Obi-wan says. He cloaks his Force signature and checks the seals on his helmet. He doesn’t want to reveal himself to Vader, but he can’t let them destroy the clones. They’ll know it is him the moment he ignites his saber, but he might just be able to cut off their communications before they tell Vader. He won’t be able to beat them. Quinlan and Aayla make a powerful team, each accounting for the other’s weakness.

“We need two hours to finish the evacuation,” Waxer says.

Obi-wan grits his teeth and calms itself. He has an opportunity now that he can't waste. “I can occupy them.”

“Copy that,” Waxer says.

Obi-wan hooks his saber to his belt and leaps out from behind cover. He sprints across the battlefield, dodging blaster bolts until he’s face to face with the two Sith and their clones. He flings the clones away with a Force push as Aayla and Quinlan draw their sabers.

He focuses on their comm links and calms his mind. He needs to lead them away from the clones and battlefield. He needs to take their comm links and prevent them from reporting him to Vader. All without revealing himself before he’s ready.

Aayla and Quinlan glance at each other, then charge forward. Obi-wan twists and ducks beneath their swings. He uses every acrobatic trick he has to dodge their sabers and frustrate the two Sith. Their swings grow sloppier, but more powerful, as their rage increases. Good.

Obi-wan flips backwards and tilts his helmet just so, as if taunting them. He attracts Quinlan easily and draws him down into a canyon, away from the eyes of their allies. Aayla trails after them, not consumed by her rage, but concerned that Quinlan is going to get himself killed. Obi-wan has no intention of killing either of them. He wants information from them, without the clones watching over his shoulder. A discussion would also provide a far longer distraction than a saber fight would.

Obi-wan removes his helmet, causing the Sith to faulter. He dives forward and takes their comm links but doesn’t yet draw his saber.

"Obi-wan?" Quinlan says, voice quiet. 

“Quinlan,” Obi-wan says. Quinlan’s expression twists briefly into shock, then hurt. “The clones are evacuating. You can let them go. They don’t want to fight you.”

“The clones are built for war. They’ll retreat today, but then they’ll come back and kill us,” Quinlan says.

“This was a peaceful colony,” Obi-wan says.

“Hardly.” Quinlan holds his saber up.

“Wait, Quinlan, look,” Aayla says, grabbing Quinlan’s arm before he can attack. His eyes fall on the Force inhibitor around Obi-wan’s neck, inactive, but present nonetheless.

Quinlan’s saber falls. “What have they done to you?” Quinlan asks with horror. 

“We need to talk,” Obi-wan says.

\-----------

“We want a ship and our lightsabers,” Ahsoka says over the comm.

“Absolutely not,” Fives says. He stands outside the captured cell block with a tactical team. They’re currently drilling through the bulkhead so that they can start bumping gas into the block. Negotiations are just a way to distract them. Part of him hopes the drilling plan fails. He desperately wants to be the one to shoot Ahsoka in the face for what she did to Echo, but Cody had given him an order. “You’re trapped in there. I can wait until you suffocate or starve.”

The comm is silent for a few moments. “And if we kill one of your men every few days and eat their flesh, we’ll be able to hold our position for six weeks,” Ahsoka says. “Do you have that long?”

She’s bluffing. She has to be bluffing. “I have as long as I need,” Fives says.

“Oh yeah?” Ahsoka says. The comment is followed by a familiar scream, one of his brothers, but it is quickly cut off. Fives strains to hear. He can only just make out another voice whispering something, probably Barriss, but he can’t hear what she’s saying. The comm link goes quiet.

Fives’ fingers tighten on the comm. “How are we doing?” Fives asks the men with him.

“It’s going to be a while. The bulkhead is heavily reinforced and it’s not easy to do without attracting attention,” Sparky says.

Fives very nearly breaks the comm as his frustration boils over.

\-----------

“What are you doing?” Barriss hisses. She stops Ahsoka from stomping on another of finger of the clone sprawled on the floor beneath her.

“They need to know we’re serious,” Ahsoka says and flips off the comm.

“They know we’re serious. We’re Sith. You don’t have to oversell it.”

“Fives already hates me. I have to work with that.”

“If he hates you, he’s not going to let us go.”

Ahsoka sighs and cools her anger before it can grow out of control. “What do you suggest?”

“Talk to him. Try to make him remember that you used to be friends.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to work.”

“Why not?”

“It was Fives’ last mission with Vader. We were infiltrating the former Jedi Temple on Corellia. His lover, Echo, was killed because I wouldn’t stop the mission to go back for him. We would have been killed if I had gone back. Fives got upset and blamed me for it.”

“Are you sure that’s how he sees it?” Ahsoka scowls. “Don’t get me wrong. I trust your judgement on missions, but Fives probably wasn’t used to you being a Sith. He was probably second guessing your every move. And then he lost the man he loved. Surely you can see why he hates you.”

“There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“You can talk to him.”

“Barriss, this is ridiculous. He’s a traitor and a monster. I don’t have to placate him.”

“Do you want to get out of here?” Barriss asks.

Ahsoka scowls. “Fine. But if I get the chance to kill him, I will.”


	18. Conversing

“Why are you fighting for them?” Quinlan asks. “What are they doing to you?”

Obi-wan touches the collar around his neck. It’s mostly obscured by his armor, but not entirely. “They found me on Vader’s ship. I had a choice. Either stay with Vader or go with them. I chose to take my chances.”

“Why would you choose them? You know us,” Quinlan says. His golden eyes are strangely vulnerable as he says this. “You were my friend.”

“I’m not the Obi-wan you knew. And Anakin isn’t the man I know. Surely you know why I couldn’t stay with him,” Obi-wan says. He reaches out into the Force towards them, trying to share his calm and to connect with them. It’s a gentle reaching out, barely consciously noticeable, but both Aayla and Quinlan relax slightly.

Aayla’s eyes drop to the ground. “We understand why,” she says. “But Vader wanted to turn you in order to protect you. Once you Fell, you would have been far more amenable to his… advances.”

“I don’t know what it’s like where you come from, but the clones here aren’t good people. They only care about themselves. Without the Republic to keep them in check, they’ve rampaged through the Outer Rim, killing and ransacking entire cities. They have no concept of mercy, no understanding of anything but war. It’s all they know. And they won’t stop,” Quinlan says. “Vader at least isn’t seeking the destruction of everything we know.”

“What have they done?” Obi-wan asks. “And why?”

“They’ve functioned as a marauding pirate fleet for months,” Quinlan says. “We have to stop them.”

“And the clones that lived here. Were they marauding?”

“Not anymore. But they would have started up the moment things went south.”

“You don’t think they can change?”

“They’re soldiers,” Quinlan says. “They don’t want to change. Those that claim to spend a few months on some peaceful colony that inevitably implodes with devastating consequences for the locals.”

“Why do you think they turned to marauding?” Obi-wan asks. “Have you considered that because it is illegal for them to leave your army, this is the only way for them to get resources? I’m not excusing their behavior, but this cycle of violence has to end somewhere. Letting the clones go could very well be the answer.”

“Look what they did to you,” Quinlan says. “They’re not capable of kindness.”

“I chose this,” Obi-wan says. “I have seen the clones grow and develop. I want them to have that chance. If I can help give that to them, then I will.”

“I’ve tried to change them,” Aayla says. “It never worked.”

“They don’t have to change. They have a culture and a way of life. It simply needs the chance to grow in a place without war and violence. Let them.” Obi-wan reaches out again to the Sith that wear the faces of his friends. “Darkness doesn’t have to dominate our destiny. We can make another choice.”

Quinlan smiles slightly. “You always had too big a heart, Obi,” he says. 

“Just give me a chance.”

“We won’t be able to stop Vader,” Aayla says. “Or change his mind.”

“I know,” Obi-wan says. “But the Force brought me here for a reason. I’m going to try and make things right.” The Force hums with nearly audible agreement around them. The gold fades from the Sith’s eyes as something resembling hope crosses their faces.

Quinlan grasps Obi-wan’s hand in a firm shake. “Good luck, friend. And Obi?” Quinlan says as he turns to leave. “Don’t try to change Qui-gon. He’s too far gone. You’ll only get yourself killed. Or worse.”

Obi-wan nods his thanks, then retrieves his helmet. “This is Kenobi. The Sith are in retreat,” he says over the comm.

“What? Already?” Waxer says. “How?”

“They decided weren’t interested in fighting a Jedi after what you saw earlier,” Obi-wan says. “Sith become sloppy when frustrated. They decided to flee rather than chance a fight.” Even from across the battlefield, Obi-wan can sense Waxer’s doubt and confusion, but there’s nothing further to be said. Telling them about the conversation would only cast doubt on his allegiance.

“Alright. Rejoin the battalion. We should be able to sweep the rest of these clankers by the end of the day.”

“On my way.”

\---------------

“How about you take your offer and shove it up your—” Barriss cuts Ahsoka off before she can finish her threat to Fives. Despite their earlier discussion, things have not progressed. Ahsoka and Fives have taken to insulting each other and offering deals so one-sided there is no chance of compliance. The only discussion that came even close to agreement was Ahsoka getting a dozen meat sandwiches in exchange for her secret meat seasoning recipe, which was apparently the only thing both Fives and Ahsoka liked. The deal hadn’t even gone through after it devolved into a shouting match.

“Why don’t we keep things civilized?” Barriss asks.

“Fuck you,” Fives says.

“Fuck you, too!” Ahsoka yells back.

Barriss sighs. This is beginning to sound suspiciously like a distraction. There’s no way they would send such a terrible negotiator if they didn’t have some other plan in the works. She hopes the plan isn’t to open the airlock and blow them all into space. She could let whatever the plan is play out and hope it keeps them all alive. Or she could find a way to undermine it and hope that Ahsoka and Fives have a chance to work through some things. Barriss can’t be Ahsoka’s only support away from Vader. She’ll need more help and a community to support her. Maybe this is where to start.

“I’m going to go scout,” Barriss says to Ahsoka in between exchanged insults. “Maybe try toning down the aggression a bit? Otherwise we’re never going to get anywhere.”

Ahsoka rolls her eyes. “It’s not my fault he’s being an ass.”

“But it will be your fault if he gets fed up and decides to break down the door with a tactical team rather than talk.”

“I’m not a child, Barriss. Don’t talk down to me.”

“I know. But you are a Sith. Our rage can consume us and sometimes we need a reminder to step back. You’ve done that for me before. Let me do that for you.”

The aggression drains out of Ahsoka’s body. The gold of her eyes fades to yellow. “He’s just distracting us, isn’t he?” she says as her head clears. Even on Force inhibitors, the Darkside retains its grip on their minds, making them volatile and aggressive, though it isn’t nearly as strong. Barriss hopes it gives Ahsoka the opportunity to remember what it was like to live without the Darkside crawling around inside her head.

Barriss nods. “I’m going to make sure we’re still secure.”

“Thank you,” Ahsoka says. She takes Barriss’s hand and squeezes it. “I’m struggling without the Force. I can’t find clarity anymore. All I feel is this pit inside me. Anger is the only thing that fills it.”

“Then let’s find another way to fill it, okay? I fill the emptiness with love. Love for you, love for myself, love for life and all its joys. I never feel truly okay, but its better than it used to be.”

“Doesn’t sound very Sith,” Ahsoka says, but she isn’t criticizing. She knows Barriss is starting to burn out and doesn’t truly wish to be a Sith anymore.

“It feels better,” Barriss says. “I no longer feel like I’m on fire every time I touch the Force. I struggle with the Darkside, but I’m trying to find another path. I want that for you, but if you’re not ready, I understand and I still want to be there for you.”

“Does it really get better?” Ahsoka asks.

“I promise it does.”


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! There will be a couple chapters in the next few days as I get back into the swing of this fic.

Kenobi sits in Cody’s office, hours after the battle is over, with his armor cleaned and his shoulders squared. His helmet is in his hand, revealing a new haircut that Cody isn’t certain he likes. It’s too militaristic. It doesn’t suit Kenobi. The rest of the army is sleeping or trapped in medbay as the medics fret over them, but not Kenobi. Despite his own desire to curl under his blankets and rest, Cody had summoned Kenobi here after reading the after-action reports sent to him.

It was staggering how easily Kenobi had blended with the 212th. He protected them, standing between them and a barrage of blaster bolts without hesitation. It is because of him that Yargo was safely evacuated. It was because of him that were able to drive off the enemy fleet, at least temporarily. No doubt they’ve gone to gather reinforcements, but the clones will be gone before they return.

“Waxer says you dueled both Vos and Secura,” Cody says as he sets aside the report. It had been filled with praise of Kenobi’s battle prowess, including several notions of Kenobi’s unarmed combat abilities, but it still shouldn’t have been possible. He doubts even Vader could take on both Vos and Secura.

He meets Kenobi’s eyes, but the Jedi doesn’t flinch away from the trap Cody’s set. “I spoke to them after I led them away from the battle,” Kenobi says.

It’s confirmation of what Cody had already suspected. Kenobi had betrayed them, just as every other Jedi had before him. Kenobi wouldn’t duel two Sith, not on behalf of the clones that had effectively enslaved him.

It had all been an act, designed to take advantage of the Kaminoan’s programming still lurking in their minds. They can’t help but trust the Jedi. And Kenobi knows it.

“I didn’t betray you,” Kenobi says, breaking Cody out of his escalating fury. “I knew the other them, I suppose is the word for it. And they knew the other me. They didn’t care about Yargo, so we talked instead of fighting. I gave you the time you needed to evacuate. And I got a story from another point of view.”

“Meaning what exactly?”

“That I now know that this is where I’m meant to be.”

“And I’m just supposed to believe that?”

“What would you have me say?” Kenobi asks.

It’s a valid question, as much as Cody doesn’t want to admit it. They both know he never trusted Kenobi. There’s no point in pretending that he ever will. Nothing Kenobi says will convince Cody otherwise, but they both know what’s will happen if Vader ever gets his hands on Kenobi again.

“You’re dismissed,” Cody says. Vader’s threats towards Kenobi will have to be enough. Otherwise the Jedi will never be of any use to him.

Kenobi nods, pulls his helmet back on, and leaves.

Cody watches him go. He wonders what it would have been like to have Kenobi as their general, as he should have been. He wouldn’t have been killed like the rest of the weak Jedi assigned to them who had died within a month each time. Cody likely wouldn’t have had to execute him, like he had to with Krell. That bastard had cut out Cody’s eyes before they had managed to bring him down.

He closes his eyes. He won’t ever make the mistake of trusting a Jedi again, but he doesn’t need to trust Kenobi to set his final plan in motion.

He only has one goal: to free the clones. And to do that, he needs to kill the Sith.

The discussion with Cody went better than Obi-wan thought possible. He had spoken to Vos and Secura knowing full well that Cody would likely come up with some creative punishment for disappearing from Waxer’s sight for so long. It would have been worth it though. Vos and Secura aren’t as far gone as he had feared, which means Anakin’s Sith aren’t as loyal to him as they appeared. It wouldn’t take much to destabilize their grip on the galaxy.

Obi-wan opens the door to the barracks but isn’t faced with the wave of hatred he had expected. The men are still wary, still watching him out of the corners of their eyes, but no is actively planning his death or fantasizing about torturing him.

It’s a nice change. Those thoughts had not made it easy to sleep at night. He had woken up a dozen times during the night to the unshielded thoughts of someone intent on making him extremely uncomfortable. They had been forbidden from outright harming him again. Apparently, Cody hadn’t wanted his new weapon broken, though it seemed Cody had thought his men could control their hatred for Obi-wan since he hadn’t stated it earlier.

He wonders if Cody was disappointed. These were his brothers, after all. He had offered them an extraordinary amount of trust housing Obi-wan among them.

“I hear Tano’s still got twenty hostages,” someone whispers. It is Ahsoka’s name that draws Obi-wan’s attention to the whispered conversation taking place across the barracks. He tugs gently at the Force, pulling the voices into clarity.

“No way,” someone else says. “I heard Fives is getting ready to space them. He wouldn’t do that to twenty of us.”

“I heard Tano ate them already.”

“She’d never actually eat someone.”

“I’d be worried about the other one. I hear she holds Tano’s leash.”

“I wouldn’t worry. Fives won’t let them get anywhere.”

Obi-wan lets the threads of the conversation slip into the background. It seems Ahsoka is making trouble. He probably should have anticipated that. She is Anakin’s padawan.

He rubs his burning eyes. The battle had taken a toll. He’s exhausted and in desperate need of a long nap, but if Ahsoka has hostages, then there’s a good chance someone is going to be killed. Sleep will have to wait.


	20. Chapter 20

“You asked me to spare them,” Cody says. “This is on you.”

Obi-wan nods. He stands before the General, trying to look appropriately contrite and helpful. Thankfully, Cody hadn’t yet been asleep when Obi-wan had returned to his quarters, meaning Cody was still in a somewhat favorable mood after winning the battle. He would have gone without permission, but he doesn’t want to destroy what little progress he has made in gaining Cody’s trust. “I know. And I want to stop them before someone else gets hurt,” Obi-wan says.

“Then they’re your problem now. I’ll let Fives know.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Cody nods and retreats back to his room without any threats or other comments. It could be the result of exhaustion, but Obi-wan has to hope that Cody is no longer holding so tightly to his hatred of Obi-wan. Otherwise there isn’t any point in him being here.

He misses his commander. His Cody had been passionate and powerful, but never cruel. His Cody had stood toe to toe with Obi-wan, challenging him when he needed to be challenged, supporting him and standing by him when he made a final decision.

His Cody would never have hurt him.

Obi-wan closes his eyes. There’s no use dwelling on the past. His friends and family with their eyes clear and their presences bright in the Force are still out there somewhere, still alive, but unreachable. The thought of never seeing Anakin again burns a hole in his heart.

But there is nothing he can do. Every theoretical physicist in the galaxy agrees that dimension travel is impossible. Only the Force can bring him home.

And the Force doesn’t seem very willing to do that at the moment.

Obi-wan sighs and pulls himself back to the present as the elevator doors open on the detention level. The clones have set up an emergency command center just before the sealed blast doors leading to the holding cells. Fives is in charge of the negotiations, but they’ve fallen apart before they have even begun. Fives is too wrapped up in his anger to be anything but a distraction. No doubt they have another plan in the works, but Obi-wan had hoped they would have put more effort into negotiating a peaceful solution.

“May I speak to them?” Obi-wan asks.

The entire room falls silent. A dozen clones that hadn’t participated in the Yargo evacuation and have no reason to think better of him glare at him as he steps forward. No doubt they saw Cody’s orders as an insult to their abilities.

“We don’t need your help, Jedi,” Fives says.

Obi-wan holds up placating hands. “I just want to be useful.”

Fives scowls, but tosses Obi-wan the comm. He has orders to let Obi-wan conduct negotiations, but he’s still in charge of the rest of the situation and the spec ops team waiting to break into the detention area. “Don’t expect me to wait long,” Fives says.

Obi-wan nods and finds a chair to settle down in. Some of the clones watch him, but most are busy preparing to take on the two Sith. Aggression hangs in the air, moments away from boiling over. It won’t be a clean strike, no matter the confidence Fives has in his ARC troopers.

People will die if he can’t convince Ahsoka and Barriss to stand down.

He closes his eyes and reaches out with the Force. He moves past the clones and the singular focus, past their memories of Ahsoka and Barriss. Not all of them are bad, but all are overshadowed by the betrayal of their Jedi. Every memory they have of the two Jedi knights is haunted by the knowledge that the Sith will take them and turn them into weapons. It is Ahsoka’s and Barriss’s faces that many of their brothers saw just before being cut down. The clones will never forgive them for that.

He finds the hostages first, their minds filled with fear. He sees their memory of Ahsoka’s burning yellow eyes as she stomps on their fingers and makes them scream. He feels their confusion when Barriss had stepped in.

And then he finds the Sith, their minds carefully shielded and dark. It is from here that he sees the cracks in Ahsoka’s shields and the tight web of darkness tying her mind together. Someone had broken her down, had ripped her mind apart and rebuilt it in their image. Anakin’s presence is woven within her soul, distorting it and tainting it with a darkness that was never hers.

He can only imagine what horrors Anakin inflicted on her to accomplish this.

Obi-wan wipes away the tears that had slipped down his cheeks. Ahsoka had been a bright spark in a miserable war, an unquenchable flame of goodness and light. She had been as dear to him as child. It breaks his heart to see her like this.

Barriss’s presence lingers behind her, shadowed and dark, but not broken. She is piecing herself together, choosing another path. The darkness clings to her. It’s entrenched deep within her soul, chosen by a young woman that had seen no other path forward, who had been so lost and alone that the light could no longer reach her. And yet she has found some spark to lead her back to the light.

“Lady Tano,” Obi-wan says as he activates the comm. “Lady Offee.”

\----------

Barriss stares down at the comm in Ahsoka’s hand. That’s the last voice she had expected to hear. Ahsoka looks just as confused, but likely because she had grown accustomed to Fives’ voice. There isn’t supposed to be anyone but clones on this ship.

“Kenobi?” Barriss asks. “What are you doing here?”

“The clones attempted to kidnap me while I was in Vader’s custody,” Kenobi says. “I chose to go with them rather than stay with Vader.”

Barriss winces. If Kenobi is an ally of the clones, then she’s in trouble. After betraying him and abandoning him to Vader, she has no hope of getting a fair deal from him. And with a Jedi out there, they don’t have a chance of fighting their way out of here. They probably would have had better luck with Fives. At least Fives had some good memories of Ahsoka to keep him from torturing her to death, but Kenobi doesn’t.

Though perhaps she can convince him to spare Ahsoka. She had only been following Vader’s orders.

“Why in the Force would you choose these monsters instead of Anakin?” Ahsoka asks before Barriss can stop her. She shouldn’t antagonize him, not when he stands between them and any chance of survival.

“Do you really need to ask that?” Kenobi says. “I can sense what he did to you. I would prefer not to share the same fate.”

“You don’t know anything! He saved me,” Ahsoka says.

Barriss places a hand on Ahsoka’s shoulder. “Let me do this,” Barriss whispers. “We talked before. I might be able to get through to him.”

Ahsoka raises an eyemark, but her trust in Barriss eventually wins over her inherent suspicion. She nods and hands Barriss the comm.

“I asked the clones to spare you,” Kenobi says, breaking the silence. “They had you in their sights after Kilata, but I made a deal with them in exchange for your lives.”

“You’re the reason we’re locked inside this cage?” Ahsoka growls, but Barriss stops her before she snatches the comm back. It’s better to be trapped than dead.

“Why would you save our lives?” Barriss asks.

“Because I believe there is still hope for you,” Kenobi says. “I want to give you the chance to live without the Darkside and the Sith, but that won’t happen if the clones choose to storm the level. I want to find a peaceful solution to this. And I want to find a way to set you free.”

Barriss swallows. That can’t be true, but it’s the only explanation for why the clones spared their lives. The clones rarely captured Sith and usually only in pursuit of information. No one had even tried to interrogate them. But it doesn’t make sense. Kenobi shouldn’t have spared their lives. They’re enemies. Enemies don’t spare each other’s lives. They don’t offer each other second chances.

“What did it cost you?” Ahsoka asks, her voice unusually gentle.

Kenobi is quiet on the other end of the line. Ahsoka waits. She’s trying to measure their worth to him in order to find the weakness that will set them free. But he didn’t save them because of their value to him, Barriss realizes as the silence stretches on. He did it because he has that same foolish hope that sings in Barriss’s heart whenever Ahsoka’s eyes fade from gold to yellow, that same stupid hope that there is something more than darkness in this galaxy.

“My freedom,” Kenobi says. And Barriss knows that she’s right.

**Author's Note:**

> I take prompts on my [Tumblr](https://ambiguousnights.tumblr.com/)


End file.
